Butterfly Gardening for Texas

8. Larval Food Plant Profiles

8 Larval Food Plant Profiles l Some of the best larval and nectar food plants that can be used in a butterfly garden are described here and in chapter 9— space prohibits describing all the useful plants to be found in the state. If you use a plant profiled in this chapter and have poor results in attracting butterflies, the best thing to do is consult the more complete additional food plant list that follows, as well as the list given in any good butterfly field guide. If one of the plants listed there is more prolific in your area than the plants shown or listed here, start watching the plants for larvae and larval usage. If locations for obtaining the plants are needed, call members of local garden clubs or butterfly organization. If you live close to a university, visit the botany and entomology departments. Usually someone there is knowledgeable about butterflies and will know the preferred larval food choices for particular species in your area. Some useful information can be obtained from various Web sites. Become familiar with the “weeds” of your area that are known food plants. Each time you pass through a place where they are growing abundantly, take a close look at them; you will often find larvae. If you are unable to recognize some of the plants of the truly weedy type, visit the herbaria of high schools or universities and study the dried plant specimens. The profiles have been placed in separate categories—trees, shrubs, vines, and herbs— and placed in alphabetical order by common name. In the additional larval food plant list at the end of the chapter, the plants have been further separated into native and nonnative/ cultivated species. Also on this list are some species of plants that are not especially desirable garden plants. They are included to show 206 l chapter 8 that in the wild they are heavily used larval food or nectar sources. If these plants are already present on or near your property, you might want to let them remain. Each larval and nectar food plant profile includes the following information: Common and scientific names: Vascular Plants of Texas: A Comprehensive Checklist including Synonymy, Bibliography, and Index by Stanley D. Jones, Joseph K. Wipff, and Paul Montgomery (revised, unpublished CD) has been followed for common and scientific names. In some instances, publications by the Botanical Research Institute of Texas were used for common names. Family: The family is the scientific classification to which each species belongs. Class: This rating has been given the plants in order to better understand the plant and to help in its location. If “native,” the plant may have to be obtained from the wild either from seeds or cuttings or from nurseries carrying native plants. If “nonnative,” it may possibly be purchased or occasionally found in the wild along with the native species . If “cultivated,” then the plant will often be offered by nurseries or can be obtained from a mail-order catalog. Height:These measurements are, in most instances, the extremes from lowest to highest as found in nature. Often in a garden situation , growth is faster and a greater height is achieved due to the greater nutrient and moisture availability. Bloom period: Dates given for both the larval and nectar plants are for the flowering period. The information in parentheses indicates the bloom period in the lower southern tip of the state, or the Lower Rio Grande Valley , where the bloom period is much longer. For the larval food plants, in most instances larvae use the foliage, which is available to them over a longer period, usually throughout the entire breeding season. Range: The regions designated here follow the map found on the end sheet of this book and reflect the general ranges of the plants and butterflies. Range of the plants generally follows the Atlas of the Vascular Plants of Texas by B. L. Turner. For a larval food plant, only the regions both where the plant can be found and where the butterflies that use the plant as a larval food source are known to breed are given here. Before growing any plant as a larval food source, make sure the butterfly that would use it already occurs in your area. When “Throughout” is given as the range, the plant either occurs naturally in all the regions or, in the...