Butterfly Gardens – Helping You Help Nature

Willow Trees

July 7, 2021 by Butterfly Gardens Leave a Comment

Willow trees are great for pollinators.

A willow tree is a type of tree that grows along rivers and streams. It has long, flexible branches that typically reach over the water. The bark of the willow is a light brown color. The leaves are shaped like ovals with serrated edges, are green in color, and they curl up inwards towards the stalk when they fall off from the tree during Autumn season.

Willows are known to grow up to 100 feet depending on species; willow trees prefer full sun and tolerate many soil types.

Salicylic acid is a naturally-occurring plant hormone found in the willow tree. The willow tree has been used medicinally for centuries, especially by Indigenous populations. For example, willow bark tea is made by steeping willow bark in boiling water, and it’s been shown to have analgesic properties. Salicylic acid is a precursor to acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), which you probably know better as aspirin.

It belongs to the order Salicales, family Salicaceae, and the genus is Salix. The number of species in Salix currently stands at approximately 400, and this includes deciduous trees and shrubs.

Willows are hosts to more than a hundred aphid species.

Some lesser known butterfly and moth species that Salix supports in North America include:

Pistol casebearer – Coleophora multipulvella
Sallow clearwing – Synanthedon flaviventris
Willow ghost moth – Sthenopis thule
Cherry casebearer moth – Coleophora pruniella
Giant leopard moth – Hypercompe scribonia
Coleophora kearfottella
Batrachedra salicipomenella
Coleophora salicivorella
Batrachedra striolata

But you probably know some of these:

The mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) butterfly is a large brownish-red butterfly with black and white markings. The adult has two broods per year. The immature form of this species is sometimes known as the spiny elm caterpillar.

Image credit Pavel Kirillov, Wikimedia Commons

The viceroy (Limenitis archippus) is a large orange and black butterfly that is frequently mistaken for a monarch. The caterpillars sequester salicylic acid in their bodies, which makes them bitter, and distasteful to predators.

Image credit Benny Mazur, Wikimedia Commons

The white admiral (Limenitis arthemis arthemis) and red spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax) also feed on willows (and birch trees) as caterpillars.

Image credits: Mer Bleue Conservation Area, Saxophlute

Remember to plant only the willows native to North America. For instance, weeping willow is native to China, but black willow is native to this continent.

Oak Trees

May 12, 2021 by Butterfly Gardens Leave a Comment

In addition to being big, beautiful and long-lived trees, oak trees are keystone plants that host and feed a lot of native wildlife in North America. In this post, we’ll look at several species of oak that you should consider planting.

Quercus Alba – White Oak

Native to eastern and central North America and found in Ontario and Quebec in Canada and from southern Maine to northern Florida and over to eastern Texas. Some are known to be 450 years old.

Bark is light grey to white. Reaches heights of 80 to 100 feet, and has a comparable spread, providing a massive canopy. Produces acorns at around age 50. Probably better as a backyard tree away from salted roads. Here’s a big list of bugs that like this plant.

Quercus Bicolor – Swamp White Oak

This one grows rapidly and can reach 60 to 80 feet. As the name implies, it can tolerate damper soils and is found on the edge of waterways and low lying areas. Native to Ontario, Quebec and the Northeastern United States. Here’s the insects it supports.

Quercus Macrocarpa – Bur Oak

Native to eastern North America, also known as mossycup oak, mossycup white oak, blue oak, or scrub oak. Produces large acorns, which are important for a variety of animals. Grows up to 100 feet and produces massive, thick trunks up to 10 feet in diameter. Things that like to live in bur oaks.

Quercus Muhlenbergii – Chinkapin or Chinquapin Oak

Native to eastern and central North America, and in Canada, found only in southern Ontario. Has especially sweet and tasty acorns. Grows 40′-50′ high with a similar spread under landscaping conditions, or 70′-80′ high in the wild. Fussy about shade, this one would great in a full sun location. Not quite as many bugs nomming on this one as the others, but might be more suitable for smaller suburban locations.

Quercus palustris – Pin Oak or Swamp Spanish Oak

Grows up to about 70′ tall with a three foot diameter trunk. Has a distinctive canopy, with leaves pointing up at the top, out in the middle of the tree, and down at the bottom of the tree. Fast growing tree, with a lifespan of about 120 years. Prefers acidic soil, and has a short, fibrous root network. Here’s what likes the pin oak.

Quercus Rubra – Northern Red Oak

A native of North America, in the eastern and central United States and southeast and south-central Canada. In full sun, grows quickly to up to 20 feet tall, and can live for 400 years. As the name implies, leaves are a pretty red colour in the autumn. Feeds a lot of critters.

Quercus shumardii – shumard oak

Also known as spotted oak, Schneck oak, Shumard red oak, or swamp red oak. Grows up to 115 feet tall, trunk diameter gets to be about 40 inches. Songbirds like the acorns, so very important to improve your bird sightings! The Shumard is not a fussy tree, and can do well in most soils. Drought resistant and prefers partial to full sun. Insects that like the Shumard.

Quercus Velutina – Black Oak

Also called the eastern black oak, grows up to 80 feet tall and has a diameter of 35 inches. Grows best on grows best on well drained, silty clay to loam soils. Has a pleasant, tidy shape. Supports a lot of bugs.

More Flower Garden Tips

October 26, 2020 by Butterfly Gardens Leave a Comment

A flower garden is a beautiful and fragrant addition to any yard. But if you’re hoping that butterflies will flutter through, a flower garden is a must. Butterflies subsist by drinking nectar from certain flowers, such as asters, coneflowers, yarrow, milkweed, and butterfly weed. Planting these types of flowers will ensure that some butterflies will visit. But, with a little bit of thought and planning, your flower garden can be designed to attract several different species of butterflies throughout the entire flight season.

Planning Your Flower Garden

Of course, choosing the right plants is crucial to attracting butterflies to your flower garden. But there are several other things that you can do to make your garden appealing to butterflies.

Check Your Hardiness Zone

Always start planning your garden by making sure you choose plants–especially shrubs and perennials–suited to your hardiness zone. If you’re unsure of your zone, check the hardiness maps available on the Canadian and American government websites.

Stagger Bloom Times

A flower garden that provides blossoms and nectar from early spring through late fall will attract the largest number and variety of butterflies. As the Butterfly Conservation website points out, butterflies emerging from hibernation in the spring need a ready source of nectar. And, in the fall, both migrating butterflies and those that hibernate for the winter will need to build up their reserves. But, as long as there is nectar available, butterflies will visit all season long.

Plant Both Annuals and Perennials

Perennials make it easy to maintain your garden from year to year, without a lot of annual work or expense. But annuals are a way to change up your garden each season. They’re also a way to add masses of colour and fragrance to areas where there is a lull in blooming. Combining both annual and perennial flowers will help to attract butterflies throughout the season.

Plant Shrubs

Shrubs are an easy way to establish the tall flowering plants that some butterflies prefer. It’s always best to choose native plant varieties and shrubs are no exception. Plants that are native to North America evolved in tandem with local plant and animal species. As a result, they are the best hosts for the region’s wildlife, including butterflies.

The Evergreen website suggests these native shrubs:

Red flowering currant (Ribes sanquineum) grows up to 4m tall and produces pink blossoms.

Ninebark (Physocarpus capitatus) blooms in the spring and can grow up to 4m high.

Lilac (Syringa spp.) has many different varieties and cultivars, making it easy to choose one suited to your planting location and your garden’s aesthetics.

Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) is a tall spring-flowering shrub that can grow up to 6m in height.

Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor) has creamy white blossoms and can grow up to 4m tall.

Plant in Full Sun

Butterflies are ectotherms like reptiles, amphibians, and fish. As pointed out in a great article at the Washington Post, that means that they can’t retain the heat generated by their metabolism. Instead, their body temperature changes according to environmental factors. If it’s cool outside, ectotherms will also be cool.

But muscles work better when they’re warm. In order to fly, butterflies need warmth. They will bask in the sun, resting with their wings outstretched, if they need to warm up. Staying warm, and being able to take flight quickly, keeps butterflies safe from predators like birds and bats.

While many flowers favoured by butterflies grow best in full sun, some varieties will grow in more shaded areas too. But, wherever possible, establish your plants in an area that gets lots of sunshine. That way, not only will your flowers help sustain butterflies, but they’ll keep the insects warm and safe as they feed.

Choose Plants with Varying Heights

Different species of butterflies seek out flowers of specific heights. In a piece at The Spruce, Jamie McIntosh gives some terrific examples. Tiger swallowtails, for instance, prefer tall flowers like Joe Pye weed. But other butterflies, such as the least skipper and little yellow, like flowers that bloom on shorter plants, like dianthus and asters.

Planting some flowers in containers or baskets is an easy way to vary the height of your plants. As an added bonus, container plantings are valuable if your flower garden is going through a lull in terms of blooms. A container full of blossoms can easily be moved into the garden patch when needed.

Plant in Masses

Butterflies use vision to seek out food. As explained at the online interactive museum WebExhibits, butterflies identify sources of nectar first by the colour of flower petals and second by the colour of flower centres. The centres change colour as they produce nectar and become pollinated. As pointed out in an article at nature.com, the changes in colour help pollinators avoid old or unrewarding flowers and focus instead on those that are rich in nectar.

Planting groups of like flowers together will help butterflies identify them from a distance. As well, masses of plants and blossoms make it worth a butterfly’s while to come for a visit, as there are more likely to be rewarding blooms.

Caring for Your Flower Garden

Taking good care of flowering plants will prolong their blossoming season. That means more time for butterflies to visit your garden.

Use natural fertilizers and compost to feed your flowers and keep them blooming longer. For the health of visiting butterflies and other wildlife, always avoid the use of chemical fertilizers as well as chemical pesticides and herbicides.

Be sure to deadhead flowering plants as needed. If left on the plant, old blooms will begin producing seeds. When that happens, the plant will throw its energy into seed production rather than creating new blossoms.

It can take some time to establish and care for a flower garden that attracts a wide variety of butterflies from spring through to fall. But it’s worth it! With a little bit of planning and effort, your flower garden can be an inviting oasis for butterflies.

Monarch Butterflies

October 19, 2020 by Butterfly Gardens Leave a Comment

The monarch is North America’s best-known butterfly. It’s large and showy, with distinctive markings. Its wings are bright orange with black veins, black borders, and white spots on the borders. But what makes the monarch truly notable is its migratory habit. Every fall, millions of monarch butterflies migrate to the warmer climates of California and Mexico, where they overwinter. For some of these butterflies, that migration is almost 5,000 kilometers long. It’s truly an amazing journey for an insect that weighs, on average, 50 grams.

Monarch Life Cycle

Like all butterflies, monarchs (Danaus plexippus) have a four-phase life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

Egg

Life begins for a monarch when a female butterfly deposits her egg on a milkweed plant. Other species of butterflies may lay several eggs at one time. However, a monarch butterfly deposits her eggs one-by-one. She may lay several hundred eggs throughout her life. The eggs are tiny–about 1mm in diameter. They are usually deposited on the underside of a milkweed leaf to keep it safe.

Larva

According to the NatureWatch website, larvae (caterpillars) typically hatch within 3-8 days. The larva starts life by eating its egg casing and then begins to feed on the milkweed plant it hatched on. Larvae don’t move around or do very much other than eat and grow. As they grow, their exoskeletons become too small and the larvae molt or shed their skin. Monarch larvae go through this process four times. And, with each success molt, their striking black, gold, and white stripes become more distinctive.

The larval stage of life lasts about 10 to 14 days.

Pupa

When it’s time to pupate (go through metamorphosis to become a butterfly), larvae will seek a safe spot to form its chrysalis. Many monarch larvae stay on their host milkweed plant and attach their chrysalides to the underside of milkweed leaves or stems. But, some may wander off and choose a different spot to pupate.

It takes 8-15 days for a monarch butterfly to complete the pupation stage. As explained at the Gardens with Wings website, the process is quite amazing:

The insect’s body basically is liquefied by digestive fluids and the body is restructured using specialized formative cells. This process is called histogenesis, in which undifferentiated cells are used to build different body tissues.

Sometimes, metamorphosed butterflies will remain inside their chrysalides for a little while. They’ll rest there until something triggers them to emerge. Those triggers, as explained in a piece at ThoughtCo, may be changes in light or temperature, or chemical or hormonal signals.

Adult Butterfly

Many adult monarchs live for only two to six weeks after emerging from their chrysalides. They begin mating very quickly after emerging, so that the population’s life cycle may continue.

The exception is with monarchs that emerge in late summer. Those are the butterflies that will make the trek to California or Mexico. They need a longer lifespan to survive the journey. These late-season monarchs may live for 6-9 months.

Monarchs and Milkweed

According to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Centre, common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.) is found throughout the midwest and eastern North America. It is actually a poisonous plant. It’s those poisonous properties that make it valuable to monarchs. As pointed out at the Espace pour la vie website, as monarch larvae consume milkweed, the plant’s toxins accumulate in the insect’s body. That toxicity makes the larvae and the adult butterflies unpalatable and slightly toxic to many predators.

Brightly coloured appearances often hinder wildlife, as the bright shades make them easy for predators to spot. But, in the case of monarchs, their bright colours serve as a warning to predators that they don’t taste good and may even be poisonous.

The Migration of Monarchs

As late summer merges into fall, monarch butterflies start their annual migration south. Butterflies that emerge from their chrysalides at this time don’t fully develop their reproductive organs. This allows them to save their energy for the migration.

Using a combination of air currents and thermals, some of the butterflies travel about 5,000 kilometers to their winter habitats. As the U. S. Forest Service explains, monarchs from eastern North America travel to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico, while monarchs from the western areas of North America have a shorter journey to California.

Monarch butterflies spend the months of November through March in their southern habitat before they start migrating back north. Interestingly, monarchs live out their regular springtime life cycles on the journey north, transforming from egg to larva to pupa to butterfly along the way. The generation that arrives in their northern summer homes is several generations removed from those butterflies that began the trek back from the south.

The Importance of Monarch Butterflies

Given their numbers and the area they cover monarchs are important pollinators. And pollinators are crucial to continued human health and wellness.

There are other reasons monarchs are important as well. They’re often used as models in the school systems, to teach children about the life cycle of butterflies and the mysteries of migration. The decline in their population has prompted conservation efforts. It has also helped to discourage the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.

Additionally, the monarch butterfly is considered an “indicator species.” Since the insects are quite sensitive to climate change as well as to harmful chemicals, changes to their population numbers are an important indicator of environmental and ecological health.

Environmental Status of Monarch Butterflies

The decline of monarch butterflies is a serious concern. The Centre for Biological Diversity (CBD) explains that between 1994 and 2016, the number of monarch butterflies had declined by a startling 68%. Because of this sharp decline, the CBD petitioned the U. S. government to declare that monarch butterflies are a “threatened” species under the Endangered Species Act. As of late 2019, that petition is still under review.

In Canada, monarch butterflies have the status of “special concern.” This means that their population is not currently considered threatened or endangered, but that might change.

Monarch populations are vulnerable mainly due to habitat loss at their overwintering sites. Those forested sites are being stripped of trees and converted into agricultural lands. However, the widespread use of chemical pesticides and herbicides is also a cause for concern. Herbicides affect the growth of milkweed, which is crucial to the survival of monarchs.

However, 2019 saw a resurgence in monarch numbers–a 144% increase, in fact, as reported by the CBC. Researchers speculate that warm weather in Texas allowed milkweed to flourish in that state, which in turn supported larger numbers of monarchs on their return migration north. Those same researchers are hopeful that the upward trend will continue. We should all hope the same. Not only are monarchs a beautiful part of our ecosystem, but they are crucial to the maintenance of human life as well.