Garden for Life

There are a number of reasons why people garden. Some people want things to eat, some want flowers, and a number of people do it just to satisfy the expectation that the landscape has plants in it. Chances are that no matter what your reason is, you spend time making choices about what to plant. It’s a point that I’ve tried to make many times: what you plant can really matter. Today’s post is about choosing host plants, a choice that allows you to actually contribute to creating new life through your landscape.

Spicebush caterpillar

Host plants are those used by insect herbivores (those that eat leaves such as the caterpillars of moths and butterflies). While some insect herbivores are specialists (limited host plants) and others are generalists (have several different host plants), the important point is that these insects do have relationships with plants and without their special plants, they can’t make more.

Spicebush butterfly

Since most people are interesting in supporting butterflies, I will focus this post on them. Keep in mind that if you include a number of “keystone” plants in addition to what I mention here, you will likely support hundreds of species of butterflies and moths.

Georgia is home to over 160 species of butterflies. Butterflies include large and well-known species like the Monarch butterfly and our state butterfly, the Eastern Tiger swallowtail; medium-sized species like the American lady, the Gulf fritillary, and the Cloudless sulphur; small species like hairstreaks and azures; and all the ones known as skippers. With careful plant selection, the average residential landscape can support close to 30 of them by providing host plants. Some plants support multiple species. The following table is available as a PDF file here.

Butterfly	Native Host Plants
Eastern Tiger swallowtail	Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera), native cherries and plums (Prunus), ash (Fraxinus), or sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana).
Spicebush swallowtail	Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), Sassafras, tuliptree (Liriodendron), sweetbay magnolia (M. virginiana)
Eastern Black swallowtail	Golden Alexander (Zizia), Angelica, meadow parsnip (Thaspium), and other parsley-family members (Apiaceae).  Note: parsley, fennel are non-native hosts.
Pipevine swallowtail	Woolly pipevine (Aristolochia tomentosa), Virginia snakeroot (Aristolochia serpentaria)
Zebra swallowtail	Paw paw (Asimina triloba)
Giant swallowtail	Wafer-ash/hop-tree (Ptelea trifoliata), Hercules club & prickly ash (Zanthoxylum sp.)
Palamedes swallowtail	Redbay (Persea borbonia) and plants in the Laurel family (Lauraceae)
Red-spotted Purple	Black cherry (Prunus serotina), hawthorns (Crataegus), oaks (Quercus), serviceberry (Amelanchier), and willow (Salix)
Monarch Queen	Milkweed (Asclepias sp.)
Hackberry Emperor American snout	Hackberry (Celtis sp.)
American lady	Cudweed (Pseudognaphalium) and pussytoes (Antennaria)
Painted lady	Native thistles (Cirsium) and members of the mallow family
Red Admiral Question mark Eastern comma	Nettles (Urtica) and false nettle (Boehmeria cylindrical)
Silver-spotted skipper Long-tailed skipper	Pea family plants like butterfly pea (Clitoria mariana) and Amorpha and American wisteria (Wisteria frustescens)
Viceroy Mourning cloak	Willow (Salix)
Common buckeye	Plantain (Plantago), native wild petunia (Ruellia), and purple false foxglove (Agalinis)
Gulf fritillary Zebra longwing	Passionvine (Passiflora)
Variegated fritillary	Passionvine (Passiflora), Violets (Viola)
Great Spangled fritillary	Violets (Viola)
Cloudless sulphur	Partridge pea (Chamaecrista sp.) and Senna
Red-banded hairstreak	Sumac (Rhus sp.)
Summer azure	Dogwood (Cornus sp.), NJ Tea (Ceanothus americanus) and wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia)
Carolina satyr Fiery skipper Zabulon skipper	Various native grasses

I hope this information inspires you to more deliberately pick a variety of native host plants for your garden. I have enjoyed watching butterflies and moths use my plants to create new life. Sometimes I collect a few and raise them in a mesh enclosure outside so that I can share with others how special their life-cycles can be. My grandson helps to gather fresh leaves for them when he comes over, and we enjoy watching the released ones fly away. Be sure to clean the enclosure with a water/bleach solution between uses.

A fresh monarch is ready to go south

Black swallowtail newly emerged