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Powell Gardens holds 15th Annual Festival of Butterflies
August 12, 2011
The Blue Morpho
By Tribune Staff
This weekend marks the second week of the 15th Annual Festival of Butterflies at Powell Gardens, located 20 miles east of Lee’s Summit on U.S. Highway 50. More than 2,000 chrysalises are brought in that emerge at different times, so that there are at least 500 butterflies at all times during the festival. Species include monarchs, zebras, Julias, Queens, and giant Tiger Swallowtails. This year the festival spotlights the colorful world of the caterpillar. It includes indoor and outdoor activities Aug. 12-14.
“We have 20 color drawings by Cape Girardeau artist Kelly Hughes this year in the multipurpose room,” said Marketing and Events Associate, Jill Draper. Hughes’ presentation, “Caterpillars with Character,” features various butterflies and moths native to this part of the country. She’s represented by the Open Window Studio and will be at the festival through Sunday.
“The festival includes a daily parade, and this year one of our volunteers--photographer and master naturalist Linda Williams--designed a giant Cecropia caterpillar in the tradition of a Chinese dragon,” said Draper. “It takes two people to walk with it.” The Cecropia is one of the five largest moths in North America.
Draper also gave praise to all of the volunteers at Powell Gardens who helped raise caterpillars this past spring that are now on display in the “Caterpillar Experience” room. “Some of the native butterflies and moths were gathered at Powell Gardens, but hundreds were hand-raised in an Overland Park guest bathroom, a Liberty backyard, and an Olathe sunroom. Others, including the world’s largest moths with wing-spans up to 12 inches, arrived in the cocoon stage on flights from Africa and the South Pacific,” said Draper.
Storytelling featuring “Fancy Nancy” will be available at 10:30 a.m.; the caterpillar float joins the costume parade through the Garden at 11 a.m. each festival day. There is also a caterpillar hunt, catch-and-release, and antennae making headbands arts and crafts. Other activities include making butterfly wings ($3 fee), paint-a-pot ($3 fee), and face painting ($2 fee). Festival admission is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors, and $5 for children (5-12). The Gardens and the butterfly Conservatory will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on festival days. For safety purposes, strollers will not be allowed in the Conservatory. If you have a stroller, they will need to be left in the staffed stroller parking area while you visit the Conservatory. The rest of the Festival and Gardens are stroller accessible.
Some interesting facts you may not know about butterflies and moths: the large female moths can lure the opposite sex through pheromones from as far as three miles away. Some don’t fly until they mate, and don’t eat at all, since they have no mouths; some caterpillars resemble bird droppings, others look like tree bark or twigs, and still others look like mini-green accordions; many have large “eyes” on their wings to scare away predators such as blue jays or cardinals, who consider them akin to a “turkey dinner with all the fixin’s”; the furry looking stuff on the legs of the giant moths is actually scales.
When the Festival of Butterflies is over, the native ones are released into the wild, and the tropical ones are shipped to Wichita and St. Louis, which each have year-round butterfly houses. Then the Conservatory is fumigated, according to USDA rules, so that no non-native butterflies or moths can accidentally mingle with the regular population.
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