Weeds for Butterflies

Ah, weeding the garden. It's no one's favorite chore, especially in the sodden heat of a Central Florida summer. The good news is that your local butterflies will actually thank you if you aren't too punctual with tidying the garden. Many of the common weeds that grow there are actually great nectar plants for butterflies, including these five common Central Florida "weeds".

Spanish Needle (Bidens alba)
This is Public Enemy Number One in a lot of Florida gardens, but the truth is that butterflies simply love it. This native wildflower blooms 12 months a year, including in winter when a lot of other flowers aren't around to provide the nectar butterflies need. Consider leaving a patch of this somewhere in your yard, and then watch to see how many butterflies visit!

Common Wireweed (Sida acuta)
This is a common "weed" of Florida lawns, where the yellow blooms attract butterflies and bees. Left unchecked, it can grow to three feet or more and become difficult to pull out. Smaller plants will flower just as profusely, though, so cut it back rather than pulling it out to keep it in check.

Florida Tasselflower (Emilia fosbergii)
These tiny pink flowers look almost fiber optic up close, but the plants themselves are a bit messy so they're rarely welcome in the cultivated garden. However, butterflies seek out these native blooms to enjoy the nectar buffet, so don't be too quick to remove this everywhere you find it.

Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)
A native wildflower with a long medicinal history among native people, Blue Mistflower has small delicate flowers that resemble ageratum, and are part of the Aster (Asteraceae) family. It likes spots with a bit of shade, so expect to find it under trees or in hidden corners of the garden.

Creeping Beggarweed (Desmodium incanum)
Though not an unattractive plant in general, Creeping Beggarweed does have fairly annoying velcro-like seedpods that stick to clothing and animal fur, which makes it somewhat irritating in the garden. However, the leaves are used by Long-Tailed Skippers and Dorantes Skippers as a host plant for their caterpillars. Since these caterpillars also use bean plants as hosts, having a patch of Beggarweed in your yard can be helpful as a place to remove invaders from your vegetable garden to a safe place for them to grow without damaging your crops.