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
	Painted Lady Vanessa cardui	Figworts (Scrophularia), monkeyflowers (Mimulus)
	Mourning Cloak Nymphalis antiopa	Willow, poplar, elm
	Weidemeyer's Admiral Limenitis	Willow, poplar
	Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice	Clovers
	Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme	Clovers and other legumes
	Gray Hairstreak Strymon melinus	Many legumes, mallows, and others
	Melissa Blue Lycaeides melissa	Many legumes
	Clodius Parnassian Parnassius clodius	Bleeding Hearts (Dicentra)
	Western Tiger Swallowtail Papilio rutulus	Willow, poplar, elm
	Anise Swallowtail Papilio zelicaon	Fennel (Foeniculum), various parsleys

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
Pincushion Flower		Scabiosa species
Buckwheats (native)		Eriogonum species
Vervain		Verbena species
Purple Coneflower		Echinacea purpurea