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
	Queen Danaus gilippus	Milkweeds (Asclepias)
	Painted Lady Vanessa cardui	Various mallows, thistles
	Sara Orangetip Anthocharis sara	Various mustards
	Gray Hairstreak Strymon melinus	Various mallows and legumes
	Marine Blue Leptotes marina	Leadwort (Plumbago)
	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)
	Two-tailed Swallowtail Papilio multicaudata	Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), Hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata)
	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.

Bastard Indigo (native)		Amorpha fruticosa
Narrowleaf Milkweed (native)		Asclepias angustifolia
Purple Coneflower		Echinacea purpurea
Yarrow (some native)		Achillea species
Vervain (native)		Verbena species