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Butterfly Gardening
By: Wizzie Brown
Butterfly gardening can be a wonderful way to invite nature into your backyard. With a little knowledge on local butterflies and the correct plants, you can create a garden that allows you to watch butterflies in various life stages. Adult butterflies feed on nectar, gathering it from flowers. Larvae, or caterpillars, feed on plant foliage, so if you do not like to have your plants eaten by insects, butterfly gardening may not be for you.
Some larvae feed only on particular plants. The following is a list to help you with your plant selection:
Butterfly Plant
Monarch butterfly milkweed, butterfly weed
Queen butterfly milkweed
Viceroy cottonwood, poplar, willow
Black swallowtail parsley, dill, fennel
Spicebush swallowtail spicebush, sweet bay, sassafras
Pipevine swallowtail Dutchman’s pipevine
Giant swallowtail citrus, Hercules club
Brazilian skipper canna
Brush-footed butterflies nettles, thistles
Hairstreak butterflies pecans, walnuts
Gulf fritillary passionflower vines
Giant purple hairstreak mistletoe
Gray hairstreak legumes
Question mark hackberry, elm
Texas crescent shrimp plant, dicliptera, ruellia
Painted lady hollyhock, thistles
Buckeye plantain, snapdragon
Adult butterflies need a source of nectar in the garden. The following is a list of plants they might like:
Plant name Flower color
Asters lavender, pink, purple, white
Blazing star lavender
Butterfly bush lavender, purple, white
Butterfly weed orange, yellow
Cone flower fuchsia
Flame bush red-orange
Goldenrod yellow
Ironweed pink, purple
Lantana combinations, lavender, orange, pink, white, yellow
Loosestrife lavender
Mexican heather lavender
Mexican milkweed red-orange, yellow
Mexican mint marigold yellow-orange
Mist flower blue, white
Phlox pink, purple, red, white
Salvia blue, lavender, pink, red
Verbena blue, lavender, pink, purple, red, white
Zinnia orange, pink, red, white, yellow
For more information or help with identification, contact Wizzie Brown, Texas AgriLife Extension Service Program Specialist at 512.854.9600. Check out my blog at www.urban-ipm.blogspot.com
The information given herein is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names is made with the understanding
that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by Texas AgriLife Extension Service or the Texas AgriLife Research is implied.
Extension programs serve people of all ages regardless of socioeconomic level, race, color, sex, religion, disability, or national origin.
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