Are you looking to build a butterfly garden? If so, you need to understand the entire life cycle of the butterflies. Everyone talks about the importance of nectar plants, but are you familiar with host plants?
Whenever you see butterflies visiting your garden, they are looking for nectar and hosts plants. Hosts plants are vital to the success of any butterfly garden. Hosts plants are where butterflies lay their eggs, and they are the only source of food for the caterpillars. Think about that for a second. The butterfly travels around and gathers nectar but will only lay her eggs in a spot that sets her offspring up for success! Since caterpillars are such small and picky eaters, this is an important step. No host plants then you will not see as many butterflies.
Different varieties of butterflies have different host plants. Planting these host plants is a way to help the butterfly population. Disclaimer, the caterpillars, will eat everything on the host plants. For people unfamiliar with the process they might think they have a pest problem. Don’t be alarmed! You will be rewarded with butterflies, and help their population. So if you don’t like the look eaten plants, maybe plant the host plants in a separate bed behind taller plants to hide them.
Here’s a list of plants and the butterflies they host.
Black swallowtail
Dill – Bouquet
Bronze fennel
Italian giant parsley
Rue
Pipeline swallowtail
Calico pipevine
Brazilian pipevine
Southwest pipevine
Monarch & Queen
Tropical milkweed
Swamp milkweed
Common milkweed
Aquatic milkweed
Green milkweed
Giant Swallowtail
Satsuma- Owari
Satsuma- Miho
Grapefruit-Rio Red
Navel- Cara Cara
Texas Crescent
White shrimp plant
Red shrimp plant
Firecracker plant
Grey Hairstreak
Texas persimmon
Buckeye
Frog fruit
Palamedes Swallowtail
Red Bay
Skippers
Little bluestem
Henry’s Elfin
Mexican buckeye
Sulphur
Flowery Senna
Partridge Pea
Candlestick Cassia
