Let It Grow
By Tammy Thornton
One of the many pleasures derived from planting a garden is interacting with the wildlife that it attracts. While my resident rabbit happily nibbles on clover in the grass, a little chipmunk races by, his puffy cheeks filled with birdseed. Hummingbirds make my heart skip a beat, as they stop sipping nectar long enough to fly in front of me and stare me down in curiosity. Then butterflies, nature’s stained glass windows, dance around me and among my flowers, barely stopping long enough for a drink. While all of these magical moments create a yearning to add more flowers to my ever growing collection, it’s a good idea to have a focused approach. For butterflies in particular, specific plants will act as hosts for caterpillars. A little homework and knowledge will help you choose plants that will have the most impact when it comes to attracting these beautiful pollinators to your garden.
While butterflies love nectar from many different types of flowers, when it comes to laying eggs, they are a bit more particular. As you probably know, milkweed is the sole food source for the larvae of monarch butterflies. That’s why milkweed is an essential plant in a pollinator garden. Fortunately, you have a few different types of milkweed to choose from. In our area, common milkweed, swamp milkweed, and butterfly milkweed (with orange flowers) will all serve as hosts for monarch butterflies. Once these flowers bloom, adult butterflies will enjoy them for their nectar.
Spicebush swallowtail butterfly caterpillars have a slightly larger palate. When you see these beautiful butterflies, you will want to rush out and buy their host plants for your garden. Adult spicebush butterflies are mostly black with bluish and bluish-green bands and orange spots on the underside of their hindwings. But the caterpillars are the stuff of nightmares. The young caterpillars are said to look like bird droppings, but as the larvae develop, they turn green (and then orange) with large scary eyespots, giving them a face only a mother could love. This snake-like appearance most likely protects them from predators. But like the Hans Christian Anderson tale of The Ugly Duckling, spicebush caterpillars undergo an amazing transformation into lovely and graceful adults. In New Jersey, host plants of this amazing caterpillar are spicebush shrubs and sassafras trees.
Look in your herb garden to find the caterpillar of New Jersey’s state butterfly. Black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars can be found eating parsley, dill, fennel, carrot tops, caraway, celery, Queen Anne’s lace, and common rue. You may have been observing these caterpillars for a while, then realized that they have suddenly disappeared. While it’s possible that they were found by predators, they may have simply moved away from their dining room. As black swallowtail caterpillars grow and approach their pupa/chrysalis stage, they will move away from their host plants to begin their transformation into butterflies. Adult butterflies will enjoy zinnias and cosmos flowers.
You may be familiar with eastern tiger swallowtails, which are yellow and black. But did you know that the females can have two different color forms, either dark or light? While males are always vibrant yellow with black stripes, females will be a darker yellow with distinct black markings or can be dark, almost black, with light blue speckling. This darker color will cause confusion in predators, making these females appear to be the distasteful pipevine swallowtail butterfly. Like the spicebush caterpillar, eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillars have false eyespots to scare off potential predators. In New Jersey, host plants for these caterpillars are native cherries, chokecherries, tuliptrees (also known as tulip poplars), and ashes.
If punctuation is your strong suit, check out the eastern comma butterfly, who’s host plants are common nettle (which I do not recommend planting), pussy willows, gooseberries, currants, elms, downy birch, and hops. These caterpillars usually feed at night. Like other butterfly adults, the comma butterfly enjoys rotting fruit and tree sap. So grab those bananas that are getting mushy in your kitchen, and take them to the garden for butterflies to enjoy. Question mark butterflies are closely related to eastern comma butterflies. They are named for the silver “question marks” on the underside of their wings. Like eastern comma butterflies, they also feed on nettle, false nettle, elms, and hops, as well as hackberries. Both of these grammar butterflies mimic dried leaves when folded.
After some of the approximately 125 species of butterflies found in New Jersey become adults, you’ll want to be ready to provide them with a welcome basket of nectar-producing flowers. Coneflower, catmint, bee balm, lavender, phlox, sage, daisy, sedum, yarrow, sunflower, lantana, and zinnia are all wonderful choices for a butterfly buffet. Of course you will also attract hummingbirds, bees, and other pollinators to your garden. Once you start hosting these grateful guests in your garden, you’ll be rewarded with magical moments and closeup nature encounters of the best kind.
We would love to hear about your magical moments in the garden. Send your comments, questions, and garden pictures to: shorelocalgaedener@gmail.com.
Tammy Thornton lives with her husband, children, and crazy pets while enjoying a life of gardening, cooking, and going to the beach.
