Butterfly
gardening brings butterflies to your doorstep.
Luxurious
foliage and bright flowers attractive to butterflies fill your yard.
Native
plants enhance the microcommunity in your landscape for butterflies,
birds, and other wildlife.
Butterflies
are attracted to nectar sources, or flowers that
provide them with food. Nectar plants attract butterflies
from the habitat that surrounds you.
Caterpillars,
which metamorphose into butterflies, require special kinds of plants to
feed upon. These are called hostplants.
The food plants produce butterflies, and serve as their habitat.
Native
plants, when put in a microsite suitable to their adaptations, will do
extraordinarily well, require very little care, and will attract and produce
numerous butterflies.
You can even set
up a butterfly garden in a container
on your patio! Plant these plants, and the butterflies will come.
Asclepias
tuberosa (Butterfly Weed)
Asimina
reticulata (Flatwoods Pawpaw). Zebra Swallowtail.
Bidens
alba var. radiata (Spanish Needles)
Hamelia
patens (Firebush)
Phyla
nodiflora (Carpetweed, Cape Weed, Matchheads, Creeping Charlie,
or Lippia). Common Buckeye and Phaon Crescent host plant.
Prunus
umbellata (Hog Plum)
Vaccinium
myrsinites (Shiny-leaved Blueberry)
Pentas
Buddleya
or Butterfly Bush
Heliotrope
Tithonia
or Mexican Sunflower
Zinnias
Glandularia
or moss verbenaAgalinis
fasciculata (Cluster-Leaf Gerardia or False Foxglove) for Common
Buckeye.
Asclepias
or milkweed for Monarchs and Queens
Asclepias
curtissii (Curtiss’ Milkweed)
Asclepias
humistrata (Sandhill Milkweed)
Asclepias
tomentosa (Velvet Leaf Milkweed)
Aristolochia
or Dutchmen's Pipe for Polydamus and Pipevile Swallowtails
Beans
for Long-Tailed Skippers
Canna
for Canna Skippers
Canna
flaccida is our native species with yellow flowers.
Cassia
for Sulphur butterflies
Cassia
fasciculata (Partridge Pea) is a host plant for Little Sulphur,
Cloudless Sulphur, Ceraunus Blue, and Gray Hairstreak.
Hackberry,
Celtis laevigata
(or Sugarberry) is a hostplant for the Snout Butterfly, Questionmark, Hackberry
Butterfly, and Tawny Emperor.
Carrot
family plants for Black Swallowtails (dill, parsley, and see our native
Ptilimnium)
Passiflora
or passionvine for Heliconians
Passiflora
incarnata (Maypop) is a host plant for the Gulf Fritillary, Julia,
Zebra Long Wing, and Variegated Fritillary.
Passiflora multiflora
(Many Flowered Passion Flower) is good for the Gulf Fritillary, Julia,
Zebra Long Wing, and Variegated Fritillary.
Passiflora
suberosa (Corky-Stemmed Passion Flower) hosts the Gulf Fritillary,
Julia, Zebra Long Wing, and Variegated Fritillary.
Persea
or Bay trees for Palamedes and Spicebush Swallowtails
Persea
borbonia (Red Bay).
Silk
Bay (Persea humilis).
Swamp
Bay (Persea palustris).
Phyla
nodiflora (Carpetweed, Cape Weed, Matchheads, Creeping Charlie,
or Lippia). In addition to being a ground cover with an excellent
source of nectar, lippis hosts the Common Buckeye and Phaon Crescent.
Citrus
plants for Giant Swallowtails, and also our native plants,
Zanthoxylum
clava-herculis (Hercules Club, Toothache Tree).
Zanthoxylum
fagara (Wild Lime).
Fruit
plates
Mudpuddling
sites
Sunny
locations
Don't
use pesticides!
Caterpillar of the zebra butterflyIf you want the definitive book on butterfly gardening in Florida (useful throughout the southern United States), watch out for Florida Butterfly Gardening. This book, by Marc and Maria Minno, will be published Summer, 1999. To reserve your copy today, contact the University of Florida Press, 15 NW 15th Street, Gainesville, FL 32603, (352)392-1351.
Florida Butterfly Gardening is the only complete guide to butterfly gardening in North America, covering butterflies, gardening, and hands-on science activities for Florida and the southern US. No other book illustrates the caterpillars, chrysalids, and host plants for over 60 species of butterflies. Florida Butterfly Gardening is the first accurate guide to nectar plants and larval host plants, and is based on over 15 years of research in Florida.