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A Lively Bouquet

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By LAURA FRAZIER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 10, 2007

BRANDON - Tampa's Museum of Science & Industry recently delivered an everlasting bouquet of flying flowers to the Brandon Senior Center on Parsons Avenue.
MOSI staff members brought a bit of magic from the museum's BioWorks Butterfly Garden to about 50 adult day care clients and other seniors Sept. 27. Celina Bellanceau offered a hands-on presentation about the winged wonders, while Kristen Gilpin and Kurt Kuechenberg planted a host of plants sure to attract butterflies to the center's backyard garden.

The MOSI representatives carted wagons full of milkweed, maypop and cassia to the garden as the seniors gathered inside for a talk about butterflies, gardening and water conservation.
Gilpin said MOSI outreach programs often focus on 'educating the community from the bottom up,' bringing information to families through the children.

Senior outreach programs such as the butterfly presentation use a different approach, from the top down.

'The idea is that the seniors will go home today and share what they learned about butterflies and gardening and water conservation with their families at the dinner table.'

Some active seniors visited the center specifically for information about butterfly gardening. Most, however, were adult day care clients, dropped off for respite care by family members. Many have disabilities or infirmities.

Gilpin said anyone can reap the benefits of butterfly watching.

'It's a fairly pleasant and calming thing,' she said. 'Even the Alzheimer's patients here can look out the window and appreciate the flying flowers.'

Bellanceau delighted the audience with a lively display of larger-than-life replica butterflies, chrysalises, eggs and cocoons.

The room really lit up, though, when she introduced the stars of the show - live butterflies and caterpillars.

Held captive in soft net containers, the fluttering insects were passed from table to table. Bellanceau walked the room with a caterpillar curled up in her palm, encouraging all to touch and hold it.

'This is the baby stage of a butterfly,' she told the group. 'As caterpillars, they eat so much it's ridiculous. All they do is eat and poop all day long, just like babies.'

Her description of the chrysalis life stage drew knowing nods and laughter from the crowd.

'I call this the teenager stage because they're just sitting around, being lazy, not doing much of anything, but growing,' she said.

Laughter gave way to amazement as she described what happens inside the chrysalis.

'All the cells break down to goo, and they're transformed into a butterfly.'

Sad sighs were audible when Bellanceau told the group that butterflies live for just two to four weeks.

'Their only purpose in life is pollination and reproduction,' she said.

Martha Smith, 95, is legally blind, but that didn't keep her from enjoying the presentation and learning.

'I can't see them, but I know they're beautiful,' Smith said. 'And I learned it's surprising, the short amount of time it takes them to go from one stage of life to another.'

ABOUT BIOWORKS
The BioWorks Butterfly Garden at MOSI is an ecosystem that emulates nature, showing how natural wetlands clean water as an alternative to wastewater treatment. Thousands of butterflies live and breed in the garden each year. Visitors can watch the butterfly life cycle from egg to adult at the outdoor gardens and ponds. BioWorks does not import butterflies from other countries but raises only butterflies native to this part of Florida. Butterflies are more abundant in the warmer months, with few flying in winter. For information, call Kristen Gilpin at (813) 987-6357 or go to www .mosi.org/bioworks.html.

Source: www.mosi.org

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523 or lfrazier@tampatrib.com.

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