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Host plants
Butterflies need several things to survive. Food - Butterflies
eat a different food than their caterpillars. Most butterflies need
nectar.
They get it from flowers. Some butterflies are attracted to rotting
fruits. The caterpillars (larva) eat leafy plants. In many cases, the
caterpillars eat only a single kind of plant. These plants are called
the host plant. The female butterfly lays her eggs on those plants,
because they furnish the food that caterpillars need.
Butterflies also need minerals. You might see some gathered
on a shallow muddy spot sipping away. Some butterflies even sip on dung
or bird droppings.
If you are considering growing a habitat
garden, then a list of plants that will feed butterfly caterpillars
will be handy. This list applies to Northeast and Mid Atlantic region
of the USA. It is by no means complete. Although many of the plants
may be found at local nurseries, some are best located by searching
for native plant sources on the Internet.
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Butterfly
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Larval Host plant
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Black
Swallowtail
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Fennel, Parsley, Carrot,
Dill
These are all easily grown from seed. Available
each spring as starts at garden stores
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Spicebush
Swallowtail
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Spicebush
- native Spicebush
Sassafras
Native tree Sassafras
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Eastern
Tiger Swallowtail
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Wild
Cherries and Tulip
Poplar, Tulip Poplar 2-
native trees
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Zebra
Swallowtail
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PawPaw
- native tree (source below)
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Cabbage
white - non native, pest unintentionally introduced to Quebec
in 1890
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nasturtium and members of the "cole" family like
the broccoli and cabbage plants in your vegetable garden.
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Great
spangled fritillary
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Violets
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Pearl
Crescent
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Asters
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Monarch
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Milkweeds
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Buckeye
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Snapdragons, Verbenas
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Mourning
Cloak
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Willows, Elms,
Aspens - native trees
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Red-Spotted
Purple
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Willows, wild cherries
- native trees
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Common
Sulfur
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clover, alfalfa, vetches, legumes
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American
Copper
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sheep
sorrel, curly dock |
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Eastern-Tailed
Blues
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flowers of legumes clovers, tick trefoil, wild
pea *caterpillar over winters in pea and bean pods
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Red
Admiral
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nettles and hops
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Silver-Spotted
Skipper
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locusts - native trees Wisteria
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Eastern
Comma
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Elm, hops, nettle
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Painted
Lady
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thistles, hollyhock and mallow
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Hackberry
Emperor
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hackberries
- native tree
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Luna
Moth
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native trees - sweet gum, hickories, walnuts,
and sumacs
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Polyphemus
moth
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oak, willow,
maple, birch
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Isabella
tiger moth
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dandelion
and plantain
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| Viceroy
Butterfly |
willow family, poplars, cottonwoods |
I have found Tripple
Brook Farm a reliable resource for some native plants like pawpaw
trees.
Caterpillars
of Eastern Forests - great for ID'ing
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/2000/cateast/families.htm
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