The pipevine swallowtail is such an eye catching butterfly. Like many of the swallowtails you have to be extremely patient with a trigger happy finger to capture their beauty. I was fortunate enough to watch a male and female do their mating dance before eventually attaching to one another during a visit at The Butterfly Estates. The males have the irresistible blue coloring on the surface of their wings, while the female is mostly black with white along the outer edge of their wing. Their host plant is the birthwort.
I really enjoy wandering through other butterfly gardens to get ideas to further enhance my garden at home. So, another trip to The Butterfly Estates in Downtown Fort Myers was enjoyed. I have to say my gardens are mimicking the same nectar plants and a good amount of the host plants that The Butterfly Estates has, which is great because it supports the butterflies of Southwest Florida.
This time the great southern white butterfly grabbed my attention, as this beauty is becoming more of a regular in the garden.
With the help of a friend, I have identified that its host plant, lepidium latifolium, broad leafed Virginia pepperweed, is growing in my yard! This plant has tiny white flowers at the top. It can reach 6 to 20″ inches tall and likes full sun, dry, well-drained sandy to rich soils.
It is part of the mustard family, which is the primary variety that the great southern white uses to lay its eggs. The butterfly was laying its egg on the cleome plant at The Butterfly Estates. So, I am happy to say that I have two big pots full of the pepperweed in one spot in the butterfly garden, hoping to soon see the amazing life cycle of this beauty. And, I also have seeds to grow another variety of mustard, which I am super excited about.
Here are photographs captured during our visit of the great southern white laying eggs, drinking nectar from porterweed and resting.
The gulf fritillary caterpillars are multiplying quickly in the garden again.
Every time I bring in more food for them in the butterfly enclosure, there’s more little caterpillsrs on the maypop passionvine.
The caterpillars are slowly reaching their desired length and making it to the top of the enclosure. This morning, one was finally in its chrysalis form.
It’s been quite a few months since we have taken these caterpillars in to watch their life cycle.
On June 23, 2021 our first monarch butterfly emerged in our butterfly house, which my husband finished building on June 13, 2021. Since that house, it has shrunk in size and now occupies space on my porch.
Yesterday, our 400th monarch butterfly emerged. He was an absolute beauty, sticking around long enough for me to take some photographs on a blanket flower. Nature is amazing to watch. The journey from egg to butterfly is remarkable.
March is off to a good start in the butterfly house. Today we had five more monarch butterflies emerged, eager to fly free. It never gets old, carefully having them crawl on your hand before they are ready to fly. I am sure by the end of March we will hit, well, surpass 400 successful monarch butterflies released.
