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Butterfly Host Plants are important when you
create your butterfly garden to provide a site for the
butterfly to lay eggs and also food source for the
emerging caterpillar. Be prepared for heavy munching
on your host plants!
Because tiny
caterpillars cannot travel far to find their own food,
the female butterfly locates and lays her eggs on only
the type of plant that the caterpillar can use as food.
Most species of caterpillars are particular about the
type of plants they can eat. If the egg was not placed
on the correct plant, the caterpillar hatching from that
egg will not survive. Many gardeners do not like to see
plants in their gardens that have been chewed on by
bugs. To avoid this, you may want to locate your
butterfly host plants in areas that are not highly
visible, but still a short distance from the butterfly
nectar plants. If you do not provide host plants, you
will have fewer butterflies.
Many
native trees and other plants found in and around our
yards are host plants for caterpillars. There are a
variety of plants that can be included in a butterfly
garden that are excellent host plants. The
Native
Plants Database is a great resource for folks
interested in selecting native plants for their yard.
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Heres
a list of common butterflies and their preferred
host plants:
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Butterfly Type
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Caterpillar Food / Host Plant
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Alfalfa butterfly
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Alfalfa, clovers, deerweed
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 Anise
Swallowtail
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Sweet Fennel, Lomatium, Citrus
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Black swallowtail
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Dill, parsley, fennel, carrot
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Buckeye
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plantains,
gerardias, toadflax, snapdragons, false
loosestrifes
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Cabbage White
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Many plants in mustard family, cabbage family
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Checkered skipper
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Mallow, hollyhock
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Checkered white
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Tumble mustard
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Clouded sulfur
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Alfalfa, clover
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Cloudless
Sulfur
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Ornamental Cassia, Canary Bird Bush
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Common hairstreak
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mallow
family , hollyhock , rose and marsh mallows
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Common
Snout Butterfly
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Hackberry
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Dogface
Butterfly
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lead
plant, false indigo, prairie clover
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Eastern
Tiger Swallowtail
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sycamore, willow
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Edwards fritillary
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Nuttall's violet
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Cabbage
White
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Broccoli, cabbage (mustard family)
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Gorgone checkerspot
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Sunflowers
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Hackberry butterfly
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Hackberry
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Melissa blue
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Wild licorice, alfalfa, etc.
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Monarch
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Milkweed
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Mourning cloak
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Willow, aspen, cottonwood, elm
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Orange sulfur
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Alfalfa, vetch, pea
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Painted Lady
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Thistle, hollyhock, sunflower
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Pale Swallowtail
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Redberry, California Coffeeberry, California
Lilac, Holly-leafed Cherry
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Question
Mark
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nettle, elm, hackberry, hops,
false nettles
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Red
Admiral
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nettle, false nettle, pellitory
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Red-Spotted Purple
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Wild cherry, oak, poplar, hawthorn, willow
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Silver-spotted skipper
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Wild licorice, locust, etc.
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Spicebush
Swallowtail
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spice
bush, sassafrass
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Two-tailed swallowtail
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Green ash, chokecherry
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Variegated fritillary
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Various, including pansy
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Viceroy
Butterfly
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willow,
poplar, apple
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Weidemeyer's admiral
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Willow, aspen, cottonwood
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Western tiger swallowtail
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Willow, cottonwood, chokecherry
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Wood nymph
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Grasses
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Zebra
Swallowtail
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Pawpaw
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Other articles you
may like:
-
Creating
a Butterfly
Garden (the basics to get started)
-
Butterfly Nectar
Plants (plants adult butterflies like)
-
Butterfly
Gardening by Area (what butterflies live in
your area)
-
Butterfly Garden
Plans (the layout and design)
-
Butterfly Behavior
To Watch in the Garden (feeding, basking, etc)
-
Sprucing Up Your
Butterfly Garden (spruce up your existing
garden)
-
Raise Butterflies
& Build Them a Home (add butterflies to
your garden)
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