Which Entrance Belongs on the Rooftop?

A Nature Stop Above the Shops

Above a busy neighborhood grocery store, residents are planning a rooftop nature stop. Hollyhocks grow in large containers, and painted lady butterflies visit their flowers. The design team wants visitors to see living things without blocking their activities. Before choosing plant stands and butterfly entrances, the team studies observation notes, close-up photographs, and a gardener's drawings of hidden structures.

A hollyhock's roots spread through the soil and take in water. Narrow tubes inside its stem carry water upward. Leaves use light to make food for the plant. In the gardener's records, a plant with a badly damaged stem had moist soil, but leaves above the damage wilted. Flowers contain parts that produce pollen and parts where seeds can begin developing after pollen is transferred. As seeds develop, a case surrounds them. Later, a mature seed can grow into a new plant under suitable conditions.

A visiting butterfly uncoils a long feeding tube on the outside of its head and draws liquid nectar from a flower. Inside its body, a digestive tube breaks down food so the body can use it. Photographs show the butterfly's legs gripping a flower while it feeds. Its wings spread outward, while muscles inside its body pull to move them. After feeding, the butterfly lifts off and flies to another flower. Sometimes pollen sticks to its body and is carried to the next flower.

Female painted lady butterflies produce eggs inside their bodies and place them on suitable leaves, including hollyhock leaves. Young caterpillars hatch and eat leaves. The team's records show tiny caterpillars beside empty eggshells on a hollyhock. The team does not cut living plants or handle butterflies. Its design decisions will use these records and counts of butterflies visiting flowers.