Butterfly Garden

There is a romantic idea about a Butterfly Garden being lovely fluttering butterflies feasting on the nectar of beautiful flowers but it’s not a real butterfly garden unless you have caterpillars which some gardeners detest and work hard to destroy.

In planning your garden, it’s essential to have plants that feed the butterfly and plants that feed the caterpillar. And when they arrive and ravage your plants, then congratulate yourself; you have succeeded as a butterfly gardener.

Today’s menu:
Palofoxia Family: Compositae Palafoxia texana
Silver Nightshade Family: Solanaceae Solanum elaeagnifolium
Cowpen Daisy Family: Compositae Verbesina encelioides


These are all native plants that are in bloom and are hosting caterpillars on the island this July 2006.

For more information about our native plants, refer to Wildflowers and Other Plants of Texas Beaches and Islands by Alfred Richardson, University of Texas Press, Austin, 2002. Also by this author, Plants of the Rio Grande Delta.