Haha, thanks :-) I will say I have some q falcata with identical leaves to your tree but the bark on mine is quite a bit different and becomes very ridged/furrowed on the lower portion of the trunk at a similar caliper as the one you have shown as well as being much darker in color. Is there any way you could remove the wrap around the lower trunk and post a pic? I wonder if some of my trees with this anomalous leaf morphology are actually q falcata x marilandica hybrids. The 90* branch emergence on your tree is also in line with q marilandica branch crotches. What oak trees did you order that included this one? This post was edited by j0nd03 on Tue, Jun 11, 13 at 14:28

Ooo, thanks for the info, NaturesFolly! From the info you sent, I'd say Black Swallowtail is a winner. :) I'm also relieved to see that the half-silk half-caterpillar look it has going on seems to be normal and that I didn't interrupt its creation of a cocoon. I've never actually seen one of these butterflies around here ever. The most I ever see is the occasional yellow butterfly or monarch, and those are a rare sight where I live. According to that site, they like to lay eggs on parsley and if that's true, this one sure crawled a long way before creating a cocoon. Where I found it is pretty far away from the parsley in the yard. I'm wondering now if this would be considered a "late summer" butterfly and if I'll need to keep it over the winter. Should I attempt to suspend it from a branch in its jar or will it be able to get out of its cocoon if it's laying on a handful of grass? Also, thanks to larry gene for identification of the furry caterpillars. Those are definitely the ones I occasionally see in the backyard in the fall (for some reason, they really seem to like being in the sand too).

Hi again Mark Ok.... I guess I will just have to harvest the seeds from all the current pods on these 2 plants, cuz I forgot which flowers I crossed!! I did mark the pots, but not the individual flowers, so I guess when I start my seeds it will be just be another mystery, unless they don't look BP at all! :/ as I had mentioned before, this is my 1st attempt at cross-pollination, so I guess I have to go by trial & error. Next time I will mark the flowers, so that I know for sure what I'm working with when I harvest. Thanks for your advice!

Looks to be the cocoon of one of the Saturniidea moths.