We’ve had a bit of a cooler weather spell here lately, which has been wonderful for us Floridians. Today, with the warmer, cloudless blue skies, the monarchs have been in abundance. This female was not bothered at all by the countless photographs I took, or how close I became. She was hungry, feasting on the sweet nectar of the red penta, which is in abundance right now.
The gulf fritillary is such an amazing butterfly to watch in action, especially as they do not scare easily when you get close. The best part is if you stay still they flutter right past you, almost touching you, as they gracefully land on the nectar of choice.
The caterpillars are of abundance on the ever growing maypop passionvine. The butterflies are busy laying eggs on the vine, and for some reason on the wire that the maypop vine threw, as well as a trellis.
Today they went from the red pentas, which are among the top two nectar plants this butterfly visits in my garden, to laying eggs.
The gulf fritillary’s life span is anywhere from 14 to 27 days.
First a sip of nectar, then she went off to lay eggs on another milkweed leaf.
Although this male monarch butterfly is out of focus . . . I love the nectar that is stuck to its proboscis, which is slightly uncoiled.
The blue porterweed is a favorite plant in the garden for the butterflies. It is an excellent plant to add to a butterfly garden as the nectar is sought out by a variety of butterfly species.
This plant has tripled in size and makes a great ground cover, and does really well in full sun. It flowers year round and has coarsely toothed leaves. The stems with the flowers grow pretty long, which gives the garden a great layered look with bursts of green and blue.
