Winter and time to be planning for spring. To us native plant enthusiasts, that may mean it will be time to plant and time to enjoy flowers blooming. To the butterflies, it will be time for some to fly from their hiding spots where they spent the winter as adults or chrysalids to look and smell for mates, and for the plants on which they lay their eggs. Also it will be time for them to look and smell for colorful, fragrant flowers to nectar on.

About six years ago I decided to look again for the butterflies that I pursued so passionately in my larval stage. I found few. I then decided to learn all of their larval food plants and favorite nectar sources. I thought if I could find these plants I’d find the butterflies. I then came across a copy of Pojar’s Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast and became engrossed with learning and finding all of the native plants in the Seattle area. I was quite pleased to find Arthur Lee Jacobsen’s Seattle area plant checklist to work from, but saddened to learn that 145 of the 516 native plant species, originally in the Seattle area, were no longer found here. I then pursued a dream of restoring as many of those plant species as possible, in particular those that might have supported the butterflies. I started on a list of all of the local native plant species that are known and potential native butterfly host plants. I was pleased to get help from Jonathan Pelham who knows more about this than anyone else. I omitted the non-native plants that butterflies use to discourage planting them.

I discovered that wet, and historically dark and forested Seattle, was among the most butterfly poor regions of the world. This was even before European ways wiped out most of the wildlife (including plants). I was still determined to work towards building or rebuilding the richest native butterfly habitat possible in the Seattle area. In doing this I also hoped to help restore the maximum diversity of beetles, bugs, bees, birds, snakes and salamanders and the plant species they lived with.

I found that there was a lot of interest in “butterfly gardening” but that it often focused excessively on the nectar flowers while relying on other property owners to provide the more critical larval foods and shelter places. I also found that it often promoted using non-native plants including invasive ones – the highly invasive Buddleja in particular. When these alien plants replace native ones, there is less food and habitat is available for both the larvae, and for all of the other organisms adapted to Northwest plant hosts and communities. Buddlejas also pull pollinators away from less alluring natives. The non- native plants themselves also detract from the wild and natural quality that I sought to have while still living in a human dominated landscape.  The other problem with “gardens” is that they usually don’t provide sufficient reasonably connected habitat to sustain a population of butterflies, so the challenge would be to connect a neighborhood together or to connect your property to nearby existing habitats. Not only is it good to use native species, but also their value is maximized when planted in appropriate habitat near existing populations of these species if possible. Planting more plants for the butterflies may not always bring more butterflies, but it’s a good start.

So what should we plant for the butterflies? Stinging nettles! While despised by many, this is the exclusive larval host plant for more of our local butterflies than any other, exclusively hosting 3 of our 28 current and 46 historically recorded Seattle butterfly species (an additional 23 species have been recorded outside Seattle in the Puget Basin lowlands.) Stinging Nettles host fleet-winged, orange Satyr Anglewings, and gold-banded Milbert’s Tortioseshells, and red-banded Red Admirals exclusively. All of these butterflies can be common in the Seattle area in good years in spring and fall and over-winter as adults. In addition, American Ladies who prefer Pearly Everlasting and Painted Ladies who prefer Thistles are also known to use Nettles as a larval food.

The larvae of another butterfly, the small orange Mylitta Crescent that can be found in Seattle, though more often outside the city, also use Thistles. Thistles (Cirsium) are also often very popular nectar sources for a variety of butterflies. The two species we see wild in Seattle – the hairy, sharp spined Bull Thistle Cirsium vulgare, and the less tough, hairless and misnamed Canada Thistle Cirsium arvense are both alien and highly invasive. There are 4 native thistles historically native to the Seattle area. Edible Thistle Cirsium edule is mostly a montane species but occurs sporadically in lowlands in moist places in sun or partial shade. It is a popular nectar source for many butterflies. Short-styled Thistle Circium brevistylum is common on the Olympic Peninsula along highway 101 in moderately dry sunny spots but I’ve been disappointed by the lack of interest butterflies have shown in the ones I’ve propagated and grown here. The other two species of thistle, Mountain Thistle Cirsium callilepis and Weak Thistle Cirsium remotifolium that are native to Western Washington and historically recorded for the Seattle area might also be tried.

Another very attractive shrub, rare in the Seattle area, that is an important butterfly larval food and nectar source is Ceanothus velutinus commonly known as Snowbrush/Mountain Balm/Sticky Laurel. This evergreen shrub growing to 15′, with attractive, rounded, shiny and aromatic leaves, is the exclusive larval food for California Tortoiseshell butterflies. This is another butterfly that over-winters in the adult stage and can be seen on any warm, sunny day from fall to spring in good years. They are orange above with a dark border and spots. It also seems to be the preferred larval food for a dramatic butterfly that occurs very rarely in Seattle, but occurs regularly a short flight away on Vashon and Kitsap (where Ceanothus also occurs regularly), the Pale Swallowtail. In this cousin of our common yellow and black striped Tiger Swallowtail, the yellow is replaced with creamy white. Snow Brush grows in only the sunniest well-drained sites and would do well all along our Puget Sound south and west facing bluffs and along our sandy, sunny freeway cuts. It’s seeds sprout best after fire and would be appropriate for the fire ecology of freeways with their car fires also. We could replace the Scot’s Broom with it. Snow Brush is also one of many shrubs with clusters of small flowers that the little blue Spring Azure butterflies lay their eggs and nectar on. Ceanothus flowers are also a good nectar source for other butterflies. The deciduous Red Stemmed Ceanothus Ceanothus sanguineus can also be used and occupies a similar ecology and is similarly rare in the Seattle area.

The Spring Azure is also a “summer Azure” hatching out as adults both in April and a next generation flying in August. This timing is in perfect sync with the two flowering and fruiting cycles of the Creek or Red Twig Dogwood – Cornus sericea (C. stolonifera) that is one of the most used host plants for the Spring Azure. These shrubs grow in sun or shade in moist places as the name “Creek Dogwood” implies. The butterfly also flies in both open places and in forests, while preferring the sunny patches there.

Two more shrubs used by Spring Azures are also used by one of our bigger more attractive common butterflies, the largely black Lorquin’s Admiral with a spotted white central band and orange wing tips (above). These are Ocean Spray Holodiscus discolor and Western Hardhack Spirea douglasii. Their flowers also provide nectar. Growing typically to about 12′ Ocean Spray thrives in medium to dry soils and full sun to medium shade. Their attractive sprays of small white flowers bloom June to August. Spirea is a moisture indicator and grows in wetlands and moist soils in full sun to medium shade. The Lorquin’s Admiral males find prominent sunny perches near these food plants where they chase anything that flies near (even Sea Gulls). If it’s a female Lorquin’s they try to mate. Anything else they try to chase away.

Another family of trees and shrubs used by Lorquin’s Admirals along with a number of other local butterflies is the Willow family Salicaceae including our most dramatic broad-leafed tree the Black Cottonwood. Our large Mourning Cloak butterfly with rich purplish brown upper sides rimmed with a band of gold, exclusively feeds on this water loving family of trees and shrubs.  They can be found in sunny patches in riparian forest on warmer days from the fall until the spring (including any unusually warm sunny winter day). The Green Comma or Anglewing also uses willows, flies in the same season, occupies a similar habitat, but one must get beyond the urban area to see it. Other Puget Basin Willow feeders, not found in the urban area, include the Sylvan Hairstreak and the Dreamy Duskywing skipper. The willow family also hosts our big, beautiful Tiger Swallowtails who also use the rest of our most common broad-leafed trees including Bigleaf Maple and Red Alder, which is partly why they are our most common butterfly during their peak flight season of June. Our native Willow Family members include Scouler’s, Sitka, Pacific Black, Piper’s, Hooker’s, Geyer’s and Bog willows, Black Cottonwood and Quaking Aspen.

One of our most elusive and beautiful butterflies that is now little seen but regularly flies in the Seattle area is the Anise Swallowtail, a smaller cousin of the Tiger Swallowtail with more black and less yellow. They feed on many members of the Carrot Family (Apiaceae). Two of their preferred foods, now rare in the metropolitan area, are Bare Stemmed Desert Parsley Lomatium nudicaule that grows in the driest, sunniest habitats and Cow Parsnip Heracleum lanatum (H. maximum) that grows in moist places in full sun to somewhat shaded spots.

There are many more larval host plants, but not enough space here to list them all.

More exciting to most of us than caterpillar food is (adult) butterfly food: the flowers (though many also eat sap, rotting fruit, dung and rotting dead animals).

The Composites (Asteraceae) are some of the best nectar sources as one “flower” is made up of numerous little flowers with nectar in each. There are many good nectar sources in this family including the already mentioned Thistles and Pearly Everlasting (Anapaalis margaritacea). A few more are worth mentioning here. Douglas Aster (Aster subspicatus) blooms mid-summer to early fall, preferring moist sunny habitats especially shorelines including somewhat salty ones. Philadelphia Fleabane Erigeron philadelphacus also likes it moist and at least partly sunny, blooming May – July. Both have purple rays and yellow centers, but the Erigeron rays are much thinner. Canada Goldenrod Solidago Canadensis is another good nectar source, their sprays of little golden flowers adorn medium to drier sunny habitats, such as roadsides in the late summer to early fall. One composite that blooms in the early spring is Coltsfoot Petasites palmatus frigidus with its large, palmate, lobed leaves coming out of the ground and its head of many white flower heads. It likes it moist, growing in sun to medium shade.

The native flower that might be the best butterfly attractant of all Spreading Dogbane Apocynum androsaemifolium whose dogbane family is unsurprisingly in a family related to the milkweed family with the famed “Butterfly Weed” of the east. It’s one of our lost species due in large part to it’s rare habitat in this area: sunny dry places. It would do well on the same bluffs and freeway cuts as Snow Brush if the Scot’s Broom could be removed. It’s pinkish almost bell-like flowers bloom throughout the summer.

Our most attractive native nectar source has been all but wiped out of the Seattle area from gardeners who dig them up and transplant them to their gardens where they normally have no chance to return their seed to the wild before they die. It’s our magnificent Columbia (Tiger) Lily. Their hanging orange blossoms with curled back petals seem to be a favorite of Swallowtails who together make an incredible sight. Please protect remaining wild ones, and collect only a small percentage of their seeds if you have the skill and patience to grow them for about 7 years until their first bloom. They grow in medium to drier soils in full sun to partial shade and bloom June to July.

While gardeners can turn their properties into richer habitats for butterflies and other wildlife, gardening and farming has been one of the biggest causes both plant and animal species decline and extinction. The desire to control nature and make it “neat” has wiped out most of the wildlife (including plants) in many areas. In particular removing dead plant matter and rocks has eliminated the hiding places especially needed for quiet stages such as pupating and over- wintering. Brush, dead leaves, dead flower heads, hollow trees and logs and rocks provide the safe shelter often needed more than larval foods and nectar sources that may be common. If the land doesn’t look like the habitat a butterfly is adapted to it may not fly in to see (and smell) if it’s favorite plants are there.

Another “farming” practice that our Department of Agriculture (specifically The U.S. Forest Service) does, as they manage our forests as farms, is to introduce new parasitic wasp species that cause both moth and butterfly pupae to hatch out as wasps instead of butterflies and moths. Even some organic gardeners do this too. The Forest Service and some organic gardeners also spray the bacteria BT that kill not only Gypsy Moths and Corn borers, but all other butterfly and moth caterpillars too. This in turn starves the baby songbirds that are mostly caterpillar dependent. Also largely brought in by gardeners and formers with their seeds and soils from other parts of the world, both intentionally and unintentionally, are invasive plants. One non-native weed in particular that is used (for a short while) by a butterfly that no longer occurs in Seattle, the beautiful little orange and white Sara’s Orange Tip, is Garlic Mustard Alaria petiolata. They are known to lay eggs on this odorous plant whose heart shaped leaves have rounded teeth. The larvae then die when they hatch and start eating the toxic leaves. These butterfly larvae should be eating the native Hairy Rockcress Arabis hirsuta eschscholtziana and Tower Mustard Arabis glabra, both of which are adapted to the driest sunniest sites and no longer occur in greater Seattle.

Not only is there an issue of using native plant “species”, but also sometimes it is important to use plants of local genetic origin. A number of local pest plants are of a native species, but a non-native race. Yarrow is an example of a native species whose European race has become an aggressive weed. There may be some genetic qualities we want to preserve in local populations that make them unique or especially well adapted to our local ecology. If a plant is rare it is particularly vulnerable to being inundated with non-local genes. Ideally plants would be collected as seed or possibly cuttings, from nearby healthy populations. Care should be taken not to over-collect. Plants can also be salvaged from nearby sites scheduled for bulldozing. Altitude and growing conditions would also ideally be similar. Some nurseries stock this kind of local material, but I would concerned that someone might tell me they have what I want, when they didn’t.

If you want to help make our area a more butterfly friendly place, consider planting some of these plants in a neighborhood habitat. We can also support land management that promotes more natives and leaves more dead plants to shelter our wildlife.

When you’re enjoying the plants and their blooms take note of any that butterflies nectar on or lay eggs on. The same if you’re enjoying the butterflies, take note of the plants. Digital photos of the two together (or separate) would be especially useful. Enjoy both the flowers on wings and stems (pedicels).

A partial list of native plants that are used by the butterflies:

Bleeding Heart Dicentra Formosa

Cow Parsnip Heracleum lanatum

Bare Stemmed Desert Parsley Lomatium nudicaule

Tower Mustard Arabis glabra Arabis hirsuta Eschscholtsiana

Aster subspicatus

Erigeron philadelpaicus

Anaphalis margaritacea

Cardamine pulcherima

Holodiscus discolor

Cardamine angulata

Lathyrus polyphylus

L. vestitus

L. nevadensis

Lotus denticualtus

Viola adunca

Viola glabella

Lupinus rivularis

Marah oreganus

Ceanothus velutinus

C. sangineum

Cornus sericea (stolonifera)

Apocynum androsaemimifolium

Trifolium Wormskjoldii

Trifolium albopurpureum

Trifolium Willendowii (T. tridentatum)

T. variegatum

Vicia Americana

V.gigantea

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