BUTTERFLY OR FLUTTERBY; THEY ARE ENCHANTING

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By Joan Johnson


The butterflies vibrant rainbow colors and graceful fluttering flight have been on this planet for about 55 million years! And while they are enchanting us they are also star performers in pollinating plants. Sadly, their natural habitat is disappearing, but we can all help by creating gardens with trees, shrubs and plants that attract and support butterfly life.

Butterflies need food, water and habitat to survive and prosper. A butterfly garden needs both host plants where the eggs are laid and hatch into caterpillars which feed on the host, and nectar plants that the adult butterflies feed on. (For a list of both kinds of plants and the butterflies they attract go to  http://www.cpe.rutgers.edu/hgs/docs/2018/Workshop-33-Butterfly-Host-Plants.pdf.) Butterfly antennae are covered with sensory organs to find food sources. The elongated tubular proboscis unrolls when at a food source. Butterflies feed primarily on nectar for energy, pollen, rotting fruit, and dung. They sip water from dew and mud-puddles to obtain nutrients and minerals. Sometimes they even land on people who are sweating to obtain the additional salt they need!

To confuse predators, some caterpillars and butterflies use camouflage so as to become almost invisible. Other butterflies have patterns of “false eyes” on their wings. Monarch butterflies, (native to America), migrate over long distances. The eastern U.S.A. population of Monarchs travels thousands of miles over several generations to reach their winter sites in Mexico.

We can all help these amazing and beautiful insects by planting trees, shrubs and flowers, especially those native to our area, to accommodate their needs. Become aware that deciduous trees such as birch, apple, aspen, cherry, hawthorn, sassafras and willow are host plants for butterflies. Shrubs and vines are also host plants for various butterfly species. Plant lilac, spicebush, rhododendron, azalea, dogwood, buddleia and viburnum as well as passion flower vine and wisteria. For plants that offer food sources, the list is almost endless! Some suggestions include milkweed, asters, zinnia, cosmos, daisies, bee balm, sunflower, honeysuckle, lantana, Joe-Pye weed, phlox, coneflower, clover and dandelion. (You may not want to plant dandelions, but perhaps leave a patch of them in the lawn uncut while they are in yellow bloom.) By the way, my mother called them flutterbys when we were little.

There is nothing in a caterpillar
that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.
R. Buckminster Fuller








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