Host Plants for Cool-Weather Butterflies

The cooler weather of late winter and early spring brings different butterflies to Central Florida as they make their way back north for the summer. You can expect to see most of these species appear by mid-February and linger until our temperatures really start to heat up in June. These butterflies will stay in your area longer if you provide appropriate host plants on which they can lay their eggs. Plan now to encourage these winter and spring visitors by including the following in your gardens in the months ahead:

Common Buckeyes (Junonia coenia) host on plants in several families including including snapdragon (Antirrhinum), toadflax (Linaria), plantains (Plantago), and acanthus. In Central Florida, they’re commonly found on yard weeds like Plantain (Plantago lanceolata), along with native wildflowers like Blue toadflax (Linaria canadensis) and Carolina Wild Petunia (Ruellia caroliniensis).

Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) host on plants in the Nettle family (Urticaceae). This can make their host plants fairly unpleasant to humans, since it includes species like Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica), a fairly common and rather painful weed to encounter. Fortunately, they also host well on harmless plants like False Nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica) and Florida Pellitory (Parietaria floridana). False nettle can often be found at native plant nurseries and definitely has a place in a native wildlife garden. It re-seeds readily but not so badly as to be a nuisance. Pellitory grows in most lawns, and if you learn to identify it, you can leave a patch for Red Admirals to use during the spring.

The Whites (Subfamily Pierinae),including the Cabbage White, Great Southern White, Checkered White, and Great Florida White host on a wide variety of plants in the Mustard family (Brassicaceae). This can include cabbage and collard greens, along with more decorative plants like Spider Flower (Cleome). A more weedy host is Peppergrass (Lepidium virginicum), which can be found in most yards. Consider leaving a patch for the whites to enjoy throughout spring.

Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui) and American Ladies (Vanessa virginiensis) have a very wide variety of host plants, unusually so for a butterfly species. More than 100 different host plants have been noted. In Central Florida, we often find them on the common yard weed cudweed (Gnaphalium pensylvanicum), but they’ll also consume asters, mallows, and various legumes. American Ladies are also said to host on ironweed and artemesia.

 

Of course, don’t forget to continue growing host plants for butterflies we see in Central Florida year-round, including milkweed (Asclepias spp.) for monarchs, passionvine (Passiflora spp.) for Gulf Fritillaries, and cassia for sulphurs.