A tiny flowering plant with a funny name, Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) is also known as Turkey Tangle or Capeweed. This ground-cover weaves itself into a tight mat of foliage that puts up diminutive clusters of blooms with a dark purple center. Frogfruit is a Florida native and is often found in lawns and roadsides.
Frogfuit is a host for the Phaon Crescent (Phyciodes phaon), White Peacock (Anartia jatrophae) and Buckeye (Junonia coenia) butterflies. Patches of this wildflower along roadsides can becomes hosts to small colonies of Phaon Crescent butterflies that not only use the plant as a larval host but also as a nectar source. Last summer I passed a huge mat of Frogfruit colonized along an exit ramp from I-75 and as I sat at the traffic light I counted at least 4 dozen Phaon Crescents busily going about their day.
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