The Greater Greenville Master Gardeners
maintain the butterfly garden at Roper
Mountain Science Center.
In 2002, the garden was certified as a National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitat. This certification means that wildlife is provided food, shelter, water and a place to raise the young on these grounds.
What is a Butterfly Garden?
A butterfly garden is simply a garden, with plant material that attracts butterflies. The general needs of butterflies are host plants and nectar plants. Host plants are the plants eaten by the caterpillar or larva of the butterfly.
Each species of butterfly has a specific plant that the adult butterfly lays her eggs on and which the caterpillar will eat. Nectar plants are the food of the adult butterfly. They use a proboscis to sip nectar from the flowers of the plant. A butterfly garden also needs protection from the wind. Many butterflies like a damp spot or mud hole for puddling. Finally, butterflies like sunny areas and some rocks to rest on and soak up the sun.
Nectar plants include these butterfly “magnets”:
‘Miss Huff’ Lantana
Butterfly Bush or Buddleia davidii
Verbena bonariensis
Phlox
Purple Coneflower or Echinacea purpurea
Butterfly weed or Asclepias tuberosa
Aster
Zinnia
Host plants are the most important plants in the garden.
Below is a list of common butterflies in our area and their host plants.
| Butterfuly Species: Host Plants: |
||
| American lady | Anaphalis, cudweed, Antennaria | |
| Black Swallowtail | fennel, parsley, rue, dill, Queen Anne's Lace | |
| Buckeye | Snapdragon, plantain, Linaria, Verbena | |
| Cabbage white | cabbage, Cleome, Nasturtium, mustard, Lunaria | |
| Cloudless sulphur | Senna, Cassia, clover | |
| Eastern Tailed Blue | legume family, clover, alfalfa | |
| Falcate orange tip | mustard family, Winter Cress | |
| Giant swallowtail | prickly ash, rue, citrus, hop trees | |
| Gray hairstreak | mallow, hollyhock, legumes, Rabbit's Foot Clover | |
| Great purple hairstreak | mistletoe | |
| Great spangled fritillary | violet | |
| Gulf fritillary | passion-vine | |
| Long-tailed skipper | legumes (pole bean, garden bean), wisteria | |
| Monarch | Asclepias species (milkweed) | |
| Mourning cloak | willow, poplar, elm, nettle | |
| Painted lady | thistle, hollyhock, Plantain | |
| Pearl crescent | aster | |
| Pipevine swallowtail | Aristolochia (pipevine),Virginia Snakeroot | |
| Question Mark | hops, hackberry, nettle, elm | |
| Red Admiral | nettle | |
| Red-spotted purple | willow, poplar, cherry, plum, apple, aspen | |
| Silver-spotted skipper | locust, American wisteria | |
| Sleepy Orange | Cassia, senna, clover | |
| Spicebush swallowtail | Lindera benzoin (spicebush), sassafras | |
| Spring azure | dogwood blossoms, Viburnum, blueberry | |
| Tiger Swallowtail | wild cherry, poplar, willow, birch | |
| Variegated fritillary | passion-vine, violet | |
| Zebra swallowtail | Asimina (pawpaw) | |
To see pictures and learn more about butterflies in our area, click on “Butterflies of North America” located at http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/
This site allows you to click on your state, and tells you what butterflies are there, and even narrows it down to the butterflies in your county.
We are very proud of our butterfly garden at Roper Mountain Science Center. Not only do we have beautiful flowers, but we have beautiful “flying flowers”.
talking with the public at Second Saturday.
