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
	Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa	Willow, poplar, elm
	Painted Lady Vanessa cardui	Various mallows, thistles
	West Coast Lady Vanessa annabella	Various mallows
	Common Buckeye Junonia coenia	Plantain (Plantago), various snapdragons
	Sara Orangetip Anthocharis sara	Various mustards
	Gray Hairstreak Strymon melinus	Various mallows and legumes
	Clodius Parnassian Parnassius clodius	Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra)
	Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus	Willow, poplar, elm
	Anise Swallowtail Papilio zelicaon	Fennel (Foeniculum), various parsleys
	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		Asclepias tuberosa
Statice or sea lavender (native)		Limonium species
Purpletop Vervain		Verbena bonarensis
Golden Marguerite		Anthemis tinctoria
Globe Amaranth		Gomphrena globosa