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Gabriella de Souza, M.S.

@theplantecologist

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Plant Biologist & Educator 🌱🔬
Edutainment for Plant Lovers 💚

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Botanical gardens and museums can order directly from my website. 🎉

No trade show. No sales rep. You apply once at theplantecologist.com/wholesale, get approved, and shop at wholesale pricing whenever you need to restock!

All pins are scientifically accurate native species illustrations. They sell well in gift shops because customers already know and love these plants and animals. The Venus Flytrap alone is endemic to NC, which makes it an easy conversation starter at the register. 🤠

$100 minimum order. 40% off MSRP. If your shop carries native species or nature education products, these are a natural fit!

Apply at the link in bio.
#nativeplants #ncnativeplants #botanicalgarden #naturegiftshop #wholesaleboutique taken in Wilmington, North Carolina by @theplantecologist

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5 months ago

Those orange spiky caterpillars on your maypop right now are Gulf Fritillaries, and they’re right where they belong.

Gulf Fritillary caterpillars can only eat passionflowers. They chew through the leaves and store some of the plant’s cyanide-based defenses in their own bodies. The ones that make it become the bright orange butterflies you’ve been seeing on lantana all fall.

Most of them won’t make it, and that’s part of a healthy yard. Paper wasps, spiders, mantids, and parasitoid flies and wasps all feed on them. Gulf Fritillaries are a common, secure species, so the best way to help is to plant more passionflower and leave the caterpillars outside. The Xerces Society’s guidance on raising monarchs explains how captive rearing can spread parasites and disease to wild butterflies, and the same concerns apply here.

Your vine will look chewed for a while. Maypop dies back in winter and comes up from its roots in spring.
Also! In 2022, the Gulf Fritillary’s scientific name changed to Dione incarnata. Its host plant, maypop, is Passiflora incarnata. Fitting 🥰

Have you spotted these on your passionflower this fall? Tell me where in the comments.

Sources: UF/IFAS Extension Featured Creatures; Butterflies of North Carolina; NatureServe; Xerces Society; de Castro et al. 2019, Ecology and Evolution

#GulfFritillary #Maypop #NativePlants #NCNativePlants #WilmingtonNC taken in Wilmington, North Carolina by @theplantecologist

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10 days ago

Every hurricane season, I think about this inlet.

In 2003, Hurricane Isabel tore a 2,000 foot gap through Hatteras Island and cut off an entire village for two months. The Army Corps filled it back in. Coastal geologists said that was a mistake, because barrier islands are built to do exactly this.

Swipe through for the part that goes back further than the storm: what the CCC planted on these dunes in the 1930s, and how that one decision shaped everything that’s happened on this island since, including what’s still happening in Rodanthe right now.

I almost did my masters research on this exact spot. It hits differently watching it play out in the news every fall.

#BarrierIslands #OuterBanks #CoastalErosion #NCHistory #PlantEcologist taken in Cape Hatteras by @theplantecologist

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a month ago

Everyone plants milkweed for the monarchs and forgets the fuel stop. Right now, coastal NC’s seaside goldenrod is doing the heavy lifting, feeding monarchs on their way to Mexico while getting blamed for allergies it doesn’t even cause (that’s ragweed). Don’t pull it.

#MonarchMigration #NativePlants #CoastalNC #PollinatorGarden #NCGardening taken in Wilmington, North Carolina by @theplantecologist

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a month ago

Despite what you may have heard, this monarch has never been to Mexico. It’s flying there anyway.

It took 3 to 4 generations to get here from Mexico last spring, each one living only a few weeks. But the ones flying through North Carolina right now are different. They’re the only generation that makes the entire 3,000-mile trip back, alone, to a place none of their ancestors described. Scientists still don’t fully understand how they find the way (National Geographic).

And none of it happens without one plant. Milkweed is the only thing a monarch caterpillar can eat.

I love putting facts like these on every pin I make. 🦋

#MonarchButterfly #NativePlants #Milkweed #NCWildlife #PollinatorGarden taken in Wilmington, North Carolina by @theplantecologist

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a month ago

One female moth lays hundreds of eggs in a single mass. This is what happens next.

Fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea) is native to North America. Seeing this nest doesn't mean your tree is under attack, it means a normal part of the food web is doing its thing.

This nest looks alarming, but your tree will likely be just fine. By the time these webs show up, deciduous trees are already winding down photosynthesis for the year. Losing a few leaves this late rarely causes lasting harm.

It's easy to confuse this with the tent caterpillars we covered earlier this year, but they're not the same insect. Eastern tent caterpillars build tents in branch forks each spring, then leave the web to feed. Fall webworm builds webs at branch tips each fall, and feeds inside the web the whole time.

Birds, wasps, and other insects rely on fall webworms as food. Predatory wasps, including Polistes species, help keep populations in check naturally, year after year.

Leave the web alone if you can't easily reach it. Save this so you know exactly which caterpillar you're looking at next time. 🐦🕸️

#FallWebworm #NativeInsects #PlantEcology #ThePlantEcologist #CoastalNC by @theplantecologist

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2 months ago

Spanish moss looks like it’s slowly killing this oak. It’s not doing what you think it’s doing up there.

Spanish moss is not a parasite. It’s an epiphyte, meaning it uses the tree only for physical support. It has no roots in the bark, and it pulls no nutrients from the tree. Everything it needs comes from rain and the air around it.

Here’s the coincidence that started this myth. Spanish moss grows best in bright, open canopies. Older or declining trees naturally let in more light, so people notice the moss and the decline together and assume one causes the other.

Here’s why that matters. Spanish moss is genuinely important habitat. Warblers and orioles nest in it. Several bat species, including the Seminole bat, roost inside its clumps. And there’s a species of jumping spider, Pelegrina tillandsiae, that has never been found anywhere else on Earth except inside Spanish moss.

Next time you see it draped over a live oak, you’re looking at habitat, not decay.

Save this for the next person about to blame Spanish moss for a dying tree. 🕷️🌳

#SpanishMoss #PlantEcology #Epiphyte #CoastalNC #ThePlantEcologist by @theplantecologist

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2 months ago

Goldenrod gets blamed for fall allergies every year. It’s innocent.

Goldenrod relies on insects for pollination. Its pollen is heavy and sticky, built to hitch a ride on a bee. That’s why it almost never causes hay fever.

The real culprit is ragweed (Ambrosia). It blooms at the exact same time as goldenrod, releasing pollen built to travel on the wind. A single plant can release up to a billion pollen grains in one season, light enough to drift for miles. That’s what’s actually in your sinuses.

Here’s why the mix-up matters. Goldenrod is one of the most important late-season nectar sources we have. Seaside Goldenrod specifically fuels monarchs migrating down the Atlantic coast, right past Wilmington. If people pull it because they think it’s making them sneeze, they’re removing food from pollinators that need it most, while the actual problem plant keeps growing right next to it.

Coastal NC actually has a few goldenrods worth knowing:

Seaside Goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens): dunes and marshes, salt tolerant
Pine Barren Goldenrod (Solidago fistulosa): common in our pocosins and pine flatwoods
Sweet Goldenrod (Solidago odora): dry sandy soil, crush the leaves and they smell like licorice

Next time you see goldenrod, you’re looking at pollinator fuel.

Save this for the next person who blames goldenrod. Share it with someone about to pull it out of their yard. 🐝🌾

#Goldenrod #Ragweed #myth #NativePlants #NCNativePlants by @theplantecologist

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2 months ago

Have you seen this in your yard? 🕸️

Those silky webs showing up in your cherry, crabapple, or pecan trees aren't spiders. They're eastern tent caterpillars!

The tent gets rebuilt every single day, fresh silk added and angled toward the sun to keep the caterpillars warm and hidden from birds while they're too small to defend themselves. If you want them gone, skip the spray. Just tear the tent open with a stick. Birds take care of the rest.

They'll strip a tree bare for a few weeks, and a healthy tree just leafs back out by summer. By June or July these guys have already pupated into a reddish brown moth, and then they're gone until next year's eggs hatch.

Mostly harmless, mostly misunderstood, and honestly one of the better excuses to stand outside and watch the birds work.

Save this for next spring, and drop a comment if you've got a tent in your yard right now. 👇

#EasternTentCaterpillar #NativeInsects #NCGardening #WilmingtonNC #NativeEcology #BackyardEcology #PlantEcologist by @theplantecologist

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2 months ago

New in the shop: magnetic pin backs! 🧲

Now every enamel pin you own can double as a magnet AND a pin. Just pop the magnetic back on when you want to display it on your fridge, locker, or magnet board, then swap back to a regular pin back whenever you want to wear it again.

Same pin, twice the versatility. No more choosing between wearing it and displaying it.

Rubber body, strong metal magnet inside, fits any standard enamel pin post. Pins sold separately!Link in bio to shop 🌿

Or comment “Magnet” and I’ll DM you the link!

#EnamelPins #PinCollector #PinCommunity #NativePlants #ShopSmall taken in Wilmington, North Carolina by @theplantecologist

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2 months ago

Your feed is probably full of "murder hornet in NC" panic this week. Let's separate the science from the scare. 🐝👇

The murder hornet was declared eradicated in the US back in 2024. What just showed up near Charlotte is a different species: the yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina). It's not a bigger sting risk than the wasps already living in your yard. The real target is honeybees. This hornet hunts them right at the hive entrance and can collapse a colony fast.

Swipe through for the myth vs. fact breakdown, then save this for the next time your neighborhood group starts spiraling.

Think you've spotted one? Photograph it if you can do so safely, then report it to NCDA&CS at ncagr.gov/YLH. Beekeepers, keep an eye on your hives for hawking behavior, hornets hovering at the entrance to pick off returning bees. And leave any nest removal to the professionals, don't try to knock one down yourself.

Early reports are how this stays contained. Save this post and share it with a beekeeper or a neighbor who's already worried.

#ncnativeplants #carolinanaturalist #beekeeping #invasivespecies #nativepollinators by @theplantecologist

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3 months ago

Most yards only have one layer. Forests have five. Canopy, understory, shrub, herbaceous, and groundcover: build all five and your garden holds up on its own. A canopy tree filters light and sets the mood for everything underneath it. An understory tree or tall shrub fills the next level down. Below that, shrubs add structure that holds the garden together even after perennials die back for the year. The herbaceous layer is where the flowers and grasses live, doing most of the color and texture work through the growing season. Groundcover finishes it off, covering bare soil so weeds have nowhere to take hold. Save this and check your yard: which layer are you missing?

#GardenDesign #NativeGardening #LayeredGarden #LandscapingTips #theplantecologist by @theplantecologist

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3 months ago