eNature: Butterfly Gardening

These are some of the common, showy butterflies of this region and the food plant (or plants) appropriate for caterpillars of each species.

Butterfly Species		Caterpillar Plants
	Black Swallowtail Papilio polyxenes	Various members of the carrot family
	Queen Danaus gilippus	Milkweeds (Asclepias)
	Gray Hairstreak Strymon melinus	Various mallows and legumes
	Zebra Longwing Heliconius charitonius	Passionflower (Passiflora)
	Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae	Passionflower (Passiflora)
	Pipevine Swallowtail Battus philenor	Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia)
	Giant Swallowtail Papilio cresphontes	Citruses, Hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata), Prickly-ash (Zanthoxylum)
	Palamedes Swallowtail Papilio palamedes	Red Bay (Persea borbonia) and other laurels
	Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Papilio glaucus	Willow, poplar, alder
	Monarch Danaus plexippus	Milkweeds (Asclepias)

Nectar Plants

These are the best flowers to plant in this region to attract a wide variety of butterfly species. The plants listed here have been shown to be tolerant of the local climate and particularly attractive to the butterflies mentioned above.

Butterfly Weed (native)		Asclepias tuberosa
Fineleaf Blazing Star		Liatris tenuifolia
Brazilian Vervain		Verbena brasiliensis
Trumpetweed		Eupatorium fistulosum
Firewheel Blanketflower (native)		Gaillardia pulchella
Annual Garden Phlox		Phlox drummondi