Gardening for Butterflies...and Caterpillars!
A butterfly garden should contain both host plants to feed butterfly caterpillars, and nectar plants to feed adult butterflies. Although butterflies can drink nectar from many kinds of flowers, both native and non-native, many butterflies can only reproduce on native plants with which they have a specific association. A partial list follows:
Butterfly Host Plants (Perennials)
Big Bluestem |
Andropogon |
Crossline, Delaware, and Swarthy Skippers |
Columbine |
Aquilegia |
Wild Indigo Duskywing |
Milkweed, Butterfly Weed |
Asclepias |
Monarch |
Asters |
Aster |
American Lady, Pearl Crescent |
False Indigo |
Baptisia |
Hoary Edge, Orange Sulphur, Wild Indigo Duskywing |
Purple Poppy Mallow |
Callirhoe |
Common Checkered Skipper |
Sedge |
Carex |
Appalachian Brown, Black Dash, Long Dash, Broad-winged and Dun Skippers, Eyed Brown, Mulberry Wing |
Northern Sea Oats |
Chasmanthium |
Northern Pearly Eye |
Black Cohosh |
Cimicifuga |
Appalachian Azure |
Rattlesnake Master |
Eryngium |
Black Swallowtail |
False Sunflower |
Helianthus |
Painted Lady |
Golden Ragwort |
Packera |
American Lady, Painted Lady |
Switchgrass |
Panicum |
Delaware, Hobomok, Indian, Least, Leonard’s, Ocola, & Tawny-Edge Skippers, Northern Broken Dash, Northern Pearly Eye |
Penstemon |
Penstemon |
Common Buckeye |
May-apple |
Podophyllum |
Variegated Fritillary |
Little Bluestem |
Schizachyrium |
Cobweb, Crossline, Indian, and Swarthy Skippers |
Stonecrop |
Sedum |
Common Buckeye, Variegated Fritillary |
False Lupine |
Thermopsis |
Orange Sulphur, Wild Indigo Duskywing |
Verbena, Vervain |
Verbena |
Common Buckeye |
Violet |
Viola |
Aphrodite, Great Spangled, & Variegated Fritillaries |
Butterfly Nectar Plants (Perennials)
Milkweeds (Asclepias incarnata and |
Bee balm (Monarda didyma) |
A. syriaca) |
Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) |
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) |
Phlox (Phlox) |
Asters (Aster) |
Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum) |
Coneflowers (Echinacea) |
Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) |
Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium) |
Goldenrod (Solidago) |
Blazing Star/Gayfeather (Liatris) |
Verbena (Verbena) |
Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) |
Ironweed (Vernonia) |