The gulf fritillary butterfly is always one of the first visitors in the morning. Not just one, but a half a dozen at a time. This one was enjoying a fire bush.
Another was enjoying the nectar of a Mexican sunflower.
A little breakfast
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Category Archives: Gulf fritillary butterfly
The ‘it’ place
My Bahama Cassia tree is the “it” place for chrysalis.
Today while searching the tree for caterpillars, I spotted yet another chrysalis, this time a gulf fritillary. The foliage of the tree must be a great hiding place for them to safely emerge.
One of the gulf fritillary butterfly’s host plants is the maypop passionvine. This plant I stopped buying as it shoots up everywhere in the garden and has been quite invasive.
According to the Flordia Native Plant Society, it has a “stoloniferous rhizome
root system,” which allows new plants to grow from suckers all over the garden.
To be honest, I do not remember where the original plant was planted in the garden. Now I have it growing in probably more than a dozen places, all over my extensive garden space. It has grown through dense mulch I just put down, too.
For the most part, I have put up stakes where it is growing and just let it be, while in other places I pull the plant. It definitely provides an abundance of food for the gulf fritillary caterpillars.
Just hanging out
A gulf fritillary butterfly found new growth of one of its host plants, maypop passionvine, to rest.
A celebration of sorts
Today my daughter and I began our first butterfly garden many years ago not knowing what kind of passion it would evolve into over the years.
Here is one of our favorites, a gulf fritillary, one of the first to visit our first garden, and since has been a constant visitor. It is always one of the first to flutter into the garden every morning to find its breakfast.
Today it’s preference was the variety of pentas that I have in the garden.
New pathways
I’m really excited about the two pathways that are going through the butterfly garden.
The brick pathway is through the first portion of the garden, which is complete. My daughter painted them years ago, but the paint has since come off, or fading a ton. I may have to scrub them clean, so she can create new designs on them again.
The stone pathway I began today to go through the second portion of the garden.
This pathway, although is very time consuming, I’m loving how it is turning out. My husband brought bricks home years ago and I never knew quite what to do with them. I started getting rid of them, a little every week, until an idea sprung.
I am now using a sledge hammer and breaking them to create another artsy pathway. It’s a huge jigsaw puzzle putting all the broken pieces together.
The best part of today, of course was watching the variety of butterflies that visited the garden while I was out there. We had monarchs, gulf fritillaries, orange barred sulphurs, great southern whites, dainty sulphurs, Cassius blue, polydamas swallowtail and one I got extremely excited about, the giant swallowtail. I sure have created an oasis!