"Flying, Flittering Flowers"
My favorite of the butterfly family. Male Monarchs are bright orange with black on the edges of their wings and black veins. The female is more of a orange-brown. Both have white spots.
Some of their favorite flowers are butterfly weed and milkweed, butterfly bush, and monarda, lilac, cosmos, and zinnias.
The larvae of the monarch need milkweed to live. The caterpillars only feed on these. The juice from the plant keep birds from eating them. It contains a poisonous substance which is very distasteful to predators. Believe it or not, birds learn to recognize the coloring of these caterpillars and stay away.
Habitat-Open fields, meadows, weedy areas, marshes, and roadsides.
Some more links about Monarchs.
Encarta About Monarchs
Beautiful photo of a Monarch
The swallowtail (favorite of my daughters and mine also) are yellow with black lines, orange dots.
Favorite flowers of this butterfly include honeysuckle, azalea, lantana, goldenrod, and orange trees.
The caterpillars resemble bird droppings. They feed on citrus trees; the young shoots, leaves and the oranges.
Habitat-On rocky and sandy hillsides, near streams in the North. Towns and citrus groves in the South.
Some more links about the Swallowtails.
Britannica About Swallowtails
Beautiful photo of a Swallowtail
Most butterflies are active on sunny, warm days. This is because they are cold-blooded. They benefits from a basking site where warmth is needed on cool mornings, as in springtime. Add lots of light-colored, flat rocks or garden sculptures to your gardens.
Butterflies also need a source of water. A shallow dish or a rock with an indentation would be plenty. You could also make a butterfly puddle by laying down some black plastic or a shallow basin, bury ony slightly in the ground, pour on some sand, and moisten it. Then surround it with some attractive rocks. Butterflies do love these little mud puddles, darting on and off, and around like the flying, flittering flowers they are.
Flowers for the butterflies, to name a few, are cosmos, buttterfly weed, zinnia, lobelia, foxglove, coreopsis, yarrow, penta, salvia, joe-pye weed, phlox, and lantana.
Here are some butterfly links for your enjoyment.
Gardening Launch Pad-Butterflies
Butterfly Gardening Webring
Fantasy Postcards-Beautiful Butterfly Collection
The Butterfly Website Butterfly World Children's Butterfly Website
We will definitely be taking more pictures; butterflies are so pretty to look at.
My daughter really enjoys butterflies as much as I love the hummingbirds. :)
Flowers butterflies love. The names fo the flowers are, in this order, zinnia (z. augustifolia), star clusters (pentas lanceolata), & flossflower (ageratum houstonianum).
