The Miracle of Metamorphosis in Your Garden
Butterflies are among the most colorful and rewarding visitors you can attract to a backyard—right alongside birds. But if you want more than a brief visit, your garden needs to provide everything they need to complete their remarkable life cycle. With the right plants, your yard can become a place where butterflies feed, lay eggs, grow from caterpillars into chrysalises, and emerge as adults.
Host Plants and Nectar Gardens
Every butterfly species depends on one or more host plants—the plants where females lay their eggs and where caterpillars feed. Caterpillars often spend their entire lives on these plants until they are ready to form a chrysalis, although some species crawl away before pupating.
If your goal is to raise butterflies naturally, planting the appropriate host plants is essential. To make your garden even more inviting, surround those host plants with a wide variety of nectar-rich native wildflowers, which provide food for adult butterflies throughout the growing season.
One of the best combinations is a patch of native milkweed, goldenrod, asters, coneflowers, blazing stars, bee balm, and other flowering perennials growing near host plants. Together, they create an ideal butterfly habitat.
Butterflies vary in how specialized they are. Some caterpillars can feed on many different plants, while others rely on just one or a few closely related species. The spectacular Black Swallowtail, for example, commonly develops on dill, parsley, fennel, and other members of the carrot family, making these excellent additions to a wildlife-friendly garden.
Best Host Plants for Caterpillars
The following North American native plants (or commonly grown garden relatives) support some of the continent's best-known butterflies.
| Host Plant | Butterflies Supported |
|---|---|
| Milkweed (Asclepias spp.) | Monarch |
| Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) | Spicebush Swallowtail |
| Wild Cherry, Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) | Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Red-spotted Purple, Viceroy |
| Willow (Salix spp.) | Mourning Cloak, Viceroy, Red-spotted Purple |
| Native Oaks (Quercus spp.) | Hairstreaks, Duskywings, Juvenal's Duskywing |
| Pipevine (Aristolochia macrophylla) | Pipevine Swallowtail |
| Parsley, Dill, Fennel (Apiaceae) | Black Swallowtail |
| Native Violets (Viola spp.) | Great Spangled Fritillary, Variegated Fritillary |
| Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) | Gulf Fritillary, Zebra Longwing (Southeast) |
| Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica and native nettles) | Red Admiral, Milbert's Tortoiseshell, Question Mark |
