Moths: The Forgotten Pollinators
Moths often pollinate the same flowers as bees, but at night. Photo: Aditidutttyagi10, Wikimedia Commons One side of the LepidopteraContinue Reading
Category: Butterflies
My Favorite Butterfly Magnet
Eastern swallowtail butterfly visiting Phlox paniculata ‘Jeana’. Photo: mtcubacenter.org I grow a lot of plants that attract butterflies, but myContinue Reading
Monarchs Arrive in Europe!
The famous migratory butterfly, the monarch (Danaus plexippus), is native to North and Central America and northern South America. (ElsewhereContinue Reading
Plant More Than Milkweeds to Save Monarchs
In North America, the serious decline of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), the black-veined orange migratory butterfly that winters inContinue Reading
Which Came First, The Butterfly or the Flower?
Biologists have long assumed that proboscis-bearing butterflies and moths like those of today (those of the Glossata clade) evolved toContinue Reading
What Bees See
A garden filled with beautiful flowers always attracts our attention, but stunning flowers didn’t evolve to attract human eyes. TheContinue Reading
Double Flowers: Bad News for Pollinators
Gardeners love double flowers. And why not? With their dense flowers jam-packed with petals, they really do stand out fromContinue Reading
A Carnivorous Butterfly
Most caterpillars (butterfly larvae) are vegetarian: they eat plants of one species or another (each caterpillar species has its preferences)…Continue Reading
Feed Creepy Caterpillars to Attract Beautiful Butterflies
Who doesn’t love butterflies? Every gardener wants to see them flitting above his or her flower beds during the summer: they’re justContinue Reading
Recognizing Butterfly Flowers at a Glance
Like all good pollinators, butterflies have preferences about the flowers they visit. In particular, most are less adept than beesContinue Reading
