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To attract butterflies to an area, you must have two things: food for the butterflies, and food for caterpillars. You can find lists of plants that provide these at local garden centers or at your county extension service. A few of the most popular plants are listed below. Most of these plants love the sun and require at least six hours of sunlight
daily. To keep butterflies coming from spring through fall,
choose a mixture of plants in order to have flowers blooming
continuously through each season.
Butterflies sip nectar from some flowers, but not others. The color and fragrance of certain flowers make them favorites for butterflies. Many garden catalogs identify these plants as “butterfly magnets” and place a butterfly symbol beside their pictures in the catalog. When planting flowers to attract butterflies, it is best to plant a patch of flowers rather than a single row, because butterflies can see the larger splash of color better.
(Take a look at the illustration of nectar flowers in the
flowerpot in "Jake and the Migration of the Monarch")
Plants that caterpillars eat are called host plants. The mother butterfly lays her eggs on a plant she ate as a caterpillar because she knows her caterpillars will eat it, too. Caterpillars are picky eaters. Each species eats only leaves from a few kinds of plants. For example, the monarch butterfly lays her eggs on a milkweed plant because she knows her caterpillars will eat only milkweed leaves. So, if you want to attract a certain species of butterfly to your yard, simply plant the host plant the caterpillars eat.
(Refer to the monarch host plant, the milkweed, in "Jake
and the Migration of the Monarch")
If you find caterpillars and want to bring them inside to watch them grow, it is important that you know what they eat. They will starve if you do not feed them leaves from their particular host plant. To find the host plant for each caterpillar, consult a butterfly field guide.
Nectar Plants for Butterflies
Butterfly Bush (Buddelia) Cosmos
Zinnia Coneflower
Lantana Marigolds
Verbena Phlox
Monarda Rudbeckia
Host Plants for Caterpillars (Butterflies lay their eggs on these plants because the caterpillars eat the leaves when they hatch.)
Plant Caterpillar that eats it
Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) Monarch
Passionvine Gulf and Variegated Fritillary
Parsley, Fennel, Dill, Carrot tops Swallowtail
Snapdragon Buckeye
Weeping Willow Mourning Cloak, Red-Spotted Purple, Viceroy
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