Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Cassia alata - sleepy orange sulfur larvae, 1 by AmandaEsq

AmandaEsq wrote:
One of many (photo) released on 10/4/2011.

I found the last cat on the plant 2 days ago, and it is moving pretty slowly with the remaining 2 cats in my sulfur container.

I started a single cutting the day I made the last post and brought it into my mist chamber (iguana's room/habitat). ha ha . This morning the temperature and humidity in there read 76/82%. Some days it seems the paint wants to peel off the walls. oops. I don't usually let it get that humid in there! We are renting this house, considering a purchase. I would strip the paint and add that moisture barrier stuff to the paint. ;)

The cutting seems strong.

I agree, Russell - a number of things here are working against this plant. You're probably right about the plants vs. the seedling. Also - I transplanted the seedling from where it came up in the soil to its current location. I inserted the seeds in beds around the yard and only 2 came up. One, I gave away. This one came up in an area where it was a bit shady. It took the seeds over a month to germinate, and then it had to deal with the stress of relocation. I did not treat the seeds in any way before they went in - may have benefited from scarification (?).

With the season change the plant gets only about 4 hours of morning sun and a little dappled sun in the afternoon. Not enough for a plant that needs full sun. It's not quite 5' tall. I am sooo envious of your giant!

There is a single bud on the plant. I will take a few more cuttings before frost and then consider digging the thing up for the winter. If I do that I will certainly take a photo of the root mass. I'm only supposing that I will have to prune the top back as well as the roots. It may suffer a bit, but it is a strong plant and should be okay.

As for other insects, the only other occupants are small ants which must like the sap which is exposed when the cats chew the leaf margins. Each cat was accompanied by an entourage of ants. Here in the Piedmont (or maybe just my own backyard) we may have fewer giant predator insects than you do in TX. I have a healthy population of pollinators in/around my house/gardens, but the honeybees stay on the basil mountain mint in the driveway for the most part. They may also be attracted to the sap of your plant. Wonder if it's good to eat? :D

The "daily photo" thread didn't seem to be the place for this post - I had a hard time finding info on the plant and/or the cats. Glad it might help others in the future.

A.