Zoom Butterflies ALL ABOUT BUTTERFLIES!

Butterfly Gardens

Milkweed: Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed leaves and Monarch caterpillars eat the leaves.

A successful butterfly garden has plants that meet butterfly's needs during all four life stages, the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and adult. You can attract butterflies to your garden by providing them with food (plants and flowers), water, shelter, and places to lay their eggs (host plants). Butterflies drink nectar, so growing nectar-rich flowers will attract butterflies to your garden. Also, when their eggs hatch, the caterpillars eat the foliage of the plant they were laid on, so growing the right type of plants to feed caterpillars is important, since it will allow female butterflies to lay their eggs in your garden.

PLANTS FOR NOURISHMENT AND PLANTS TO LAY EGGS ON
There are two different functions that plants serve for butterflies: nectaring plants, plants that the butterflies will sip nectar from and host plants, species specific plants that they can lay their eggs on (and the caterpillars will eventually eat).

NECTARING PLANTS
Most butterflies only eat flower nectar. Different species of butterfly usually prefer different flowers, but they will generally feed on many types of flowers from plants, shrubs, vines, and trees.

HOST PLANTS
When it comes to laying their eggs, however, butterflies only lay them on the plant that the caterpillar will eventually eat (this differs from species to species). The eggs are frequently laid on the underside of leaves.

Caterpillars mostly eat leaves; usually the leaves that they were laid on.

The chrysalis (pupa) does not eat, but needs a sheltered environment. It frequently hangs from a twig and is often camouflaged.

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GOOD PLANTS FOR BUTTERFLIES
Plan your garden so that there are flowers much of the year, so that there is a steady supply of nectar for the butterflies.

Sunlight: Butterflies use sunlight to regulate their body temperature. They need sunlight to keep themselves warm, but the outside temperature can also become too hot for them. A good butterfly garden should provide both sunny places and shady places where butterflies can cool off while they eat.

Buddleia (pronounced BUD-lee-ah), also called butterfly bush, has lilac-shaped blossoms whose sweet nectar attracts many species of butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, and bees. This easy-to-grow deciduous shrub blooms from mid to late summer and is a magnet for Western Checkerspots, swallowtails, buckeyes, Red Admirals, Echo Blues, and many other butterflies. Also, during the fall, buddleia seeds will feed birds. There are about 70 species of the Buddleia genus.

The following are common, easy-to-grow plants that attract many butterflies

•Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)
•Lantana
•Zinnias
•Bee balm
•Purple coneflowers
•Pentas
•Sage
•Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) or other milkweeds
•Lilac
•Sunflower
•Marjoram
•Hebe
(these will attract many local butterflies).

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Do not use insecticides in your garden! They will kill butterflies and caterpillars.

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The first step is to determine which species thrive in your area, then determine what host plant the butterfly needs - see the table below.

Butterflies and The Plants Their Caterpillars Eat

Butterfly	Host Plant (The plant that the butterfly will lay its egg on and the caterpillar will later eat.
Monarch and The Queen	milkweed
Pipevine Swallowtail	pipevine, snakeroot, and knot vine
Black Swallowtail	parsley, carrots, parsnips
Anise swallowtail	anise, fennel, carrots, parsley, parsnips
Orange-Barred Sulphur	Cassia and the pea family
Cloudless sulphur	wild senna
Sara Orange Tip	wild mustard
Southern Dogface	wild indigo and clover
Great Southern White	mustards
Julia, Gulf Fritillary, Zebras	passion flower leaves
Greater Fritillaries and Lesser Fritillaries	violets
Diana	manure piles
Filed Crescent	asters
Painted Lady and Mylitta Crescent	thistles
Question Mark	elm
Satyr	nettles
Fawn	birch, alder
Zephyr	elm and currant
Comma	nettle and hops
Buckeye	plantain and gerardia
West Coast Lady and Grizzled Skipper	mallows
Red Admiral and Milbert's Tortoise Shell	nettles
Mourning Cloak	elm, willow, and poplar
White Admiral	birch, willow, and poplar
Viceroy	willow and poplar
Red-Spotted Purple	wild cherry
California sister	live oak
Nais Metalmark	wild plum
American Copper	sheep sorrel
Eastern Tailed Blue, Orange-Bordered Blue	legumes
Pygmy Blue and Dwarf Blue	lamb's tongue
Common Blue	dogwood flowers
Marine Blue	buds and blossoms of wisteria, alfalfa, locoweed, and legumes
Southern Cloudy Wing and Northern Cloudy Wing	clover and legumes
Silver Spotted Skipper	wisteria and locusts

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