Caterpillar Chrysalis on an Artificial Tree

One of our most common questions is whether or not our artificial plants and trees look real or whether they are obviously fake. They do, indeed, look very real. So real, in fact, that sometimes even insects can’t tell the difference. This story will demonstrate just what we mean.

During a recent expedition into the Hawaiian rainforest, one of our customers came across some caterpillars. He brought them home to share with his nieces, along with some natural branches. They placed both the branches and the caterpillars in a plastic box and started watching their life cycle. It is such a neat experience to get an up-close look at the life of a caterpillar.

One morning, it was what was outside of the box that captured the interest of our customer’s wife. Somehow the caterpillars had crawled out of the plastic box and headed over to a nearby artificial lemon topiary. She watched as the caterpillar navigated the synthetic branches of the tree before moving him back into the plastic box. It wasn’t the last time she would have to relocate a caterpillar from the fake tree to the natural branches. She did it two more times in the coming days. Then, one morning she noticed that the caterpillar had formed a chrysalis on the artificial tree.

That very determined caterpillar had made the trek had ventured out of that box and into the artificial tree a third and final time. Here is a closer view of the beautiful chrysalis that is hanging from the realistic-looking polyester silk leaves and branches of this lemon topiary. After looking at that photo, would you have known at first glance that the tree was artificial?

About Philip Travers

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