The Humane Gardener: An Interview with Nancy Lawson
A Thistle Epistle
Florida Habitat Gardening in Zone 9a
Bountiful Blue Wood Aster
Wanted Alive in Your Garden: Black Swallowtail Caterpillars
Capturing Caterpillar Moments Book Review
Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood, Winnie the Pooh has his “thotful” spot, a special log where he can quietly ruminate on whatever needs ruminating on. Pooh’s creator did not indicate how long stuffed animals contemplate their existential dilemmas, but my recent meditations on the production of Butterfly Gardener magazine took many, many months before a possible solution materialized. After much think, think, thinking, the obvious thought emerged: Butterfly Gardener would benefit from the appointment of an Associate Editor.
Mary Anne Borge, a frequent contributor to Butterfly Gardener, has accepted the new position and her creative influence is evident in this issue. Inspired by the importance of offering food for caterpillars and shelter throughout a butterfly’s life cycle “Wanted Alive in Your Garden” is a new feature created by Mary Anne which highlights caterpillars and their needs in a lighthearted manner. Please consider submitting a ‘Wanted’ poster featuring your favorite caterpillar/butterfly. We would like to feature as many garden caterpillars as possible. To submit your ‘Wanted’ poster, or for more information, contact Mary Anne at borge@naba. org. Not as bouncy as Tigger, but equally as enthusiastic, Mary Anne is particularly interested in native plants and their intimate associations with insects, birds, and other animals. Her brief biography can be found on page 28 of this issue.
Copy editing is a behind-the-scenes activity but essential to any magazine. Sharon Wander has been filling this position for Butterfly Gardener for many years. Her eagle eye and editing skill coupled with extensive knowledge about butterflies and gardening make her an invaluable member of the team. In addition to helping with the magazine, Sharon is currently President of NABA’s New Jersey Chapter, Editor of NABA’s Butterfly Count Report, and is a popular speaker on butterfly gardening. I am grateful for all she contributes to the magazine and the organization.
Also crucial to the production team are NABA members who generously share their stories, photographs, and observations, and thereby generate many “thotful” and joyful moments for the rest of us. Please keep them coming!
We want to hear from you! Please send Butterfly Gardener correspondence and submissions to: Jane Hurwitz, Editor, NABA, 4 Delaware Road, Morristown, NJ 07960; hurwitz@naba.org
Articles, gardening tips and observations, artwork, digital high resolution photographs, poetry and comments will be considered for publication. Please send self-addressed stamped envelope for items to be returned.
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—Jane Hurwitz, Editor
For questions concerning membership issues, magazines, or changes of address, please write to NABA Membership Services, 4 Delaware Road, Morristown, NJ 07960. Occasionally, members send membership dues in twice. Our policy in such cases, unless instructed otherwise, is to extend membership for an additional year.
As an avid photographer, I am always looking for ways to express my creativity; photography has allowed me to capture some of nature’s most unique wonders, which I enjoy sharing with others. I have always enjoyed photographing butterflies and have been able to combine my love of raising butterflies with my passion for photography to capture the amazing sequences of photos on the following pages.
Over the past three years, I have been fortunate to raise and release hundreds of butterflies from eggs laid in my garden. My interest started about five years ago when I found an orange caterpillar eating leaves on my beautiful passionflower. At first, I was angry, but with a bit of research, I discovered that it was a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar, so I was happy to let it eat. Now my garden is full of caterpillar food plants and I collect the butterfly eggs from the garden to raise in an outdoor mesh enclosure that protects them from predators. The process of butterfly metamorphosis has always fascinated me, but watching firsthand how a tiny egg becomes a butterfly is truly amazing.
In fall 2016, after spending about two weeks raising Monarch caterpillars, I had 20 chrysalises and the hope that I could capture photos of one eclosing. About ten days later, the chrysalises changed from green to black and orange, so I set up for my photo shoot the next morning. I carefully secured three of the chrysalises to a stick with a thread. Each chrysalis has a silk pad at the top which makes a perfect place to attach a thread. I found a nice background of sunlit leaves, set up my lights and tripod, and looked up to see a butterfly already out! I could not believe that I missed it, but I was now ready for the other two. About 30 minutes later, the magic started to happen again and I caught the entire event on camera! The first eight photos were taken over about two minutes, the next four were during the following two and a half minutes, and the last four photos show the next ten minutes. I knew that I captured what I wanted, so then I just relaxed with two monarchs hanging on my finger drying their wings while I watched the last one eclose. This sequence of photos is on page 6.
In spring 2017, I was able to photograph a Pipevine Swallowtail eclosing and pupating (pages 7 and 8), as well as a Monarch pupating (page 5). In April, I collected eggs from both species from my garden and raised them in an outdoor enclosure. When the Pipevine Swallowtail started to look for a spot to pupate, I moved it to a small mesh enclosure and placed a piece of wood in the enclosure with the hopes that the caterpillar would choose it as the location for attaching its chrysalis. The caterpillar complied and this allowed me to remove the wood and place it in a perfect location to photograph the process. After setting up my camera, I waited all day, and I was finally able to capture the event. I was then lucky enough to also capture the butterfly eclosing 19 days later.
Jill Gorman Photography
Jill Gorman
Photography
Jill Gorman Photography
To capture the monarch pupating (page 5), I had to carefully move the J from the enclosure and pin it by the silk. I’ve photographed this process many times, but I’ve never waited long enough to capture the chrysalis’ final transformation. After capturing photos of the final molt, I set my camera to take a photo every 30 seconds for the next 90 minutes. It is amazing how the chrysalis becomes smooth and compact, turning into the beautiful green form that we all know.
Jill Gorman is an Atlanta-area transplant who graduated from Case Western Reserve University with a Masters in Anesthesia and now works in an Atlanta hospital. In addition to photography, she enjoys hiking, gardening, and traveling, as well as spending time with her wonderful husband and two sons. She hopes to photograph many more butterfly species and produce sequences similar to those in this article. View more of her images and prints at www.jillgormanphotography.com/Butterflies.
Jill Gorman Photography
Butterfly Gardening
“This book stands alone. It gently guides you step-by-step on the path to creating an accomplished butterfly garden, and it makes you feel as though you have been welcomed into a group of butterfly-gardening friends. The presentation is clear and concise, the butterfly and plant charts are indispensable, and the photographs are incredible.”
—Rick Mikula, president of Butterfly Rescue International
“This very useful book will appeal to virtually everyone interested in butterfly gardening or butterflies. Neither too elementary nor too technical, the book presents new concepts that are easy to grasp and implement.”
—John V. Calhoun, Research Associate, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History
press.princeton.edu
The Humane Gardener: An Interview With Nancy Lawson
by Mary Anne Borge
Photos by Nancy Lawson
In response to questions posed by Mary Anne Borge for Butterfly Gardener, Nancy Lawson, author of The Humane Gardener, guides us through the steps we can take to become gardeners who make our property welcoming to wildlife and neighbors, a philosophy that can enhance our butterfly gardening. In the interview below, Nancy gives us a taste of what it’s like to be a humane gardener.
What does it mean to be a humane gardener?
A humane gardener challenges herself to see the world through the eyes (and ears and noses and antennae) of other species, from the easy-to-love butterflies and birds to the more misunderstood moles and beetles and wasps and groundhogs. She appreciates all the creatures just trying to make a life outside her door, rather than applying compassion selectively to some species and not others. Sometimes this means taking the time to learn the diverse approaches animals take to feeding, breeding, sheltering, and raising young.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtails on Joe Pye weed
What did you have to change in your own gardening practices to become a humane gardener?
I never used fertilizers or pesticides here, but my cultural practices were otherwise fairly conventional – in that I didn’t take the time to learn who was living among us before assuming they didn’t belong. A few years before gardeners began clamoring for milkweed at the nurseries and plant sales, it was sprouting on its own in our front yard. It looked like an interloper to me, so I asked my husband to chop it down as he walked around with his power trimmer.
I also kind of freaked out every time I saw an insect I didn’t recognize. I remember spraying water underneath some leaves because I saw little yellow blobs and thought they were aphids. Only later did I realize they were ladybug eggs. A few experiences like that taught me to be more thoughtful. We have so much ladybug habitat here that as soon as the aphids appear, the ladies are all over them.
What are your biggest challenges as a humane gardener?
Once I realized how much life was under the fallen leaves and logs, in the rotting stumps and soil, and even in my plant stalks, I was reluctant to disturb anything! This may create an issue if you’re trying to keep your front yard acceptable to the neighbors. Our community is of the live-and-let-live
mindset, but I don’t want to merely be tolerated for my wildlife-gardening ways. I want to be such a good ambassador for plants and animals that my neighbors will feel inspired to help them, too.
We’ve done a few things to make both the wildlife and neighbors happy: Habitat signs explain why we garden this way. Birdbaths and a birdhouse are functional ornaments, showing people our efforts are intentional. This year in a visible spot near the road, we added more paths and defined spaces, lining them with logs and rows of Purple Lovegrass, Butterfly Milkweed, St. Johnswort, Smooth Aster and Flaxleaf Whitetop Aster, also known as stiff aster. The effect was almost instantaneous: neighbors actually stopped in their tracks to point admiringly at areas of the garden that had previously been indiscernible to their eyes. And we didn’t have to disturb very much to effect this change.
How have your gardening practices effected the butterflies you see on your property? When we first moved to our home in 2000, we had virtually no butterflies. I don’t think I even knew it was possible to have butterflies in the home landscape! In the early years, we saw Eastern Tiger Swallowtails visit Clavel de Muerto, also known as Mexican sunflower, which I had grown from seed. For a while, I attributed this only to the presence of the flowers, not understanding that our property edges were filled with their host plants, especially Tuliptrees.
When we began to invest much more time in planting natives than in growing annuals, I noticed the tiger swallowtails were now nectaring on Eastern Purple Coneflower, Joe Pye weed, New York Ironweed, and other perennials. And then one spring I found a Black Swallowtail chrysalis in the grasses and a Mourning Cloak caterpillar crawling along some leaves by our patio—two revelatory experiences that opened my eyes to the need to attend to habitat elements far beyond just flowers.
As native plants spread on their own and leaves and logs lay undisturbed for the first time, the butterflies multiplied. In addition to the tiger swallowtails, we have almost 30 other butterfly species. Most of these butterflies are not uncommon in my county, but it’s unusual to see them all in one garden.
Are there any other changes in the wildlife you see since you altered your gardening practices?
Many of our fellow inhabitants are ones you don’t typically see in gardens. We’ve been graced by the presence of indigo buntings, orioles, scarlet tanagers, barred owls, and hawks. Hummingbirds fly in front of our faces quite frequently. We’ve found salamanders in the leaves, ebony jewelwing damselflies near our patio, several species of dragonflies in our meadow, and abundant hummingbird moths. Toads and wood frogs keep me company as I garden, and we also have green frogs, pickerel frogs, and Eastern box turtles. The number and diversity of bees, wasps and flies is astonishing. There is always a party in the Thoroughwort, also known as boneset, and Mountainmint. Every year there is more and more life.
Northern Pearly -eye
Is there anything else you would like to share with other gardeners?
When thinking about how to support whole life cycles in your yard, it’s often more about what you don’t do than what you do. Gardening and landscaping experts tend to talk a lot about “winter interest” in the form of plant shape, colors and textures, but for me the interest comes in seeing the animals who visit. What could be more fascinating and joyous than the squirrel who bends down a leftover Wild Bergamot stalk in a snowstorm to eat the seeds or the woodpecker who comes to the stumps every evening in the summer for a little beetle-filled happy hour? These animals are better gardeners than we’ll ever be, planting seeds and providing a natural balance that help us all grow and thrive.
Nancy Lawson is the author of The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife and a columnist for All Animals magazine. A frequent speaker on garden ecology, she founded Humane Gardener, an outreach initiative dedicated to animal-friendly landscaping methods. Lawson's book and wildlife habitat have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Oprah Magazine, and other media outlets. She previously led the creative teams behind the award-winning magazines of The Humane Society of the United States.
Common and Scientific Plant Names Found in The Humane Gardener: An Interview With Nancy Lawson
Butterfly Milkweed– Asclepias tuberosa
Clavel de Muerto, also known as Mexican sunflower – Tithonia rotundifolia
Eastern Purple Coneflower - Echinacea purpurea
Flaxleaf Whitetop Aster, also known as stiff aster - Ionactis linariifolius
Joe Pye Weed – Eutrochium spp.
Mountainmint – Pycnanthemum spp.
New York Ironweed - Vernonia noveboracensis
Purple Lovegrass - Eragrostis spectabilis
Scarlet Beebalm – Monarda didyma
Smooth Aster - Eucephalus glabratus
St. Johnswort – Hypericum spp.
Thoroughwort, also known as boneset – Eupatorium spp.
Tuliptree - Liriodendron tulipifera
Wild Bergamot – Monarda fistulosa
The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife by Nancy Lawson Princeton Architectural Press, 2017. 5.8 x 8.2 inches, hardcover, 224 pages. ISBN 978-1616895549
For the Love of Butterflies
Please photocopy this membership application form and pass it along to friends and acquaintances who might be interested in NABA. www.naba.org
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A Thistle Epistle
By Lynne and Jim Weber
As one of the most wrongly maligned and misunderstood group of wildflowers, native thistles have never been truly embraced, not even by wildscape gardeners or habitat restoration practitioners. While these plants play a significant role in our ecosystems, they have been a direct casualty of habitat loss, first by plow-based agriculture and followed by the continual development of roads and cities. Further, recent invasions of non-native, exotic thistle species and the inability to discern them from the superficially similar native species, have contributed to their unjustified reputation and ongoing demise.
Native thistles are a beautiful and important group of plants, with subtle blue-green foliage, fascinating stem and leaf architecture, and longlasting pastel blooms that nourish many species of insects and birds. The nectar they produce is utilized by many species of bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, spiders, katydids, and hummingbirds, which demonstrates the wide diversity of animals supported by native thistle flowers. In late summer and early fall, they are an essential nectar source for migrating Monarchs. Their persistent seed heads provide the favorite food of goldfinches and other seed-eating songbirds such as chickadees, and the silky fluff attached to mature seeds is used to line their nests in the spring. While there are many plants with spines that are erroneously called ‘thistles,’ true thistles belong to the genus Cirsium. Native thistles are noticeably less prickly than are the weedy, non-native thistles, but some governmental agencies do not differentiate the natives from the non-natives, and unfortunately classify all Cirsium species as noxious.
Of the 62 species native in North America, the most important in Texas are Texas Thistle (Cirsium texanum) and Yellow Thistle (Cirsium horridulum). Texas Thistle, also called southern thistle, occurs throughout Texas and into neighboring Oklahoma and New Mexico. It is an upright, unbranched or
White-lined Sphinx
Lynne and JimeWeber
sparingly branched plant, two to six-and-a-half-feet tall, with grayish-green foliage that is spiny and woolly-white below. Violetpink to deep lavender-rose composite flower heads top the stems from April to August, and are surrounded by bracts that bear a silvery strip down the middle. These silvery strips are really prominent, glutinous, or sticky ridges that act as a natural defense, trapping ants and other small insects that approach from below to rob the nectar from the plant’s flowering heads. Most notably, Texas Thistle is the primary caterpillar food plant for Painted Ladies in Texas.
Yellow Thistle, as perhaps foreshadowed by its scientific name Cirsium horridulum, has a host of other, undeserved common names such as horrid thistle and terrible thistle. Common throughout East Texas and the rest of the southeast, it has a branching, densely hairy stem rising from a two-foot-wide basal rosette, one to five-and-a-half-feet tall, with long grayish-green spiny leaves and several large flower heads. Blooming May to August, these composite flower heads are up to three inches wide, surrounded by a whorl of spiny, hairy, leaf like bracts, and are frequently red-purple, pink, or white instead of the namesake yellow. In the
Texas Thistle
Texas Thistle’s silvery bracts
Lynne and Jim Weber
Lynne and Jim Weber
Yellow Thistle
first year of growth this plant remains a low-lying rosette, and ‘bolts’ in the spring of the following year to reach its full height. Yellow Thistle is an excellent attractant for Sphinx moths and is the primary caterpillar food plant for the Little Metalmark butterfly in Texas, and is also utilized by Painted Ladies.
Other butterflies that utilize native thistles as caterpillar food beyond Texas include Mylitta Crescent, Pale Crescent, and California Crescent. For those who live in other areas of the US, the following native thistle species should be considered:
Northeast US: Pasture Thistle (C. pumilum)
Eastern US and Canada: Field Thistle (C. discolor)
Western US and Canada: Wavyleaf Thistle (C. undulatum)
Southwest US: New Mexico Thistle (C. neomexicanum)
Western US and Canada: Meadow Thistle (C. scariosum)
Lynne and Jim Weber
Frank Model
Jerry F. Butler
Little Metalmark
Little Metalmark caterpillar
Painted Lady
It’s time to bring back our native thistles, so consider planting them in your wildscape, meadow, or butterfly garden. These species have evolved with our native pollinators in our natural habitats over thousands of years. As a result, they benefit us by helping to sustain a healthy ecosystem, protecting our water quality, sequestering carbon in our soils, and adding a sublime beauty and structure to our landscapes. And that’s our epistle to the thistle!
Editor’s Note: Iowa and Arkansas list all Cirsium species as noxious weeds. California lists Wavyleaf Thistle as a noxious weed. Yellow Thistle is native from Texas east through the southern US, and north along the east coast through most of New England. It is considered endangered in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, and threatened in Rhode Island.
Jim & Lynne Weber are certified Texas Master Naturalists, published authors, and nature photographers residing in Austin, Texas. Their recent retirements from long careers in the tech industry have enabled them to focus more fully on their life-long interest in several aspects of natural history. The Webers blog can be found at https://naturewatchaustin.blogspot.com and their third book, Native Host Plants for Texas Butterflies: A Field Guide, will be published by Texas A&M University Press in summer of 2018.
Jim P. Brock
Painted Lady caterpillar
Lynne and Jim Weber
Florida Habitat Gardening in Zone 9a
Text and photos by Bill Berthet
There are many positive reasons to garden—stress relief, exercise, and mental health benefits to name just a few. I started my habitat garden in 2000 at a newly purchased property in northeast Florida; a life-altering divorce was challenging me and gardening gave my life balance, helping me to be a better father.
It is exciting to raise butterflies in my yard! The process provides me with the opportunity to take part and share the miracle of metamorphosis with others, and I find a real sense of accomplishment releasing adults that I rear from caterpillars. Since 2001, I have documented 61 species of butterflies visiting my .31 acre property (of which only .19 acres are developed for habitat gardening). Butterfly species recorded in my garden span many butterfly families and subfamilies—to date, the following species totals by butterfly family/ subfamily are: 8 Swallowtails, 2 Whites, 7 Yellows, 6 Hairstreaks, 1 Blue, 4 Heliconians & Fritillaries, 6 True Brushfoots, 2 Admirals & their relatives, 1 Emperor, 2 Satyrs, 3 Milkweed Butterflies, and 19 Skippers.
Photo top of page: Zebra Heliconians roost communially.
Photo bottom of page: The foliage of passionflowers in Bill’s garden provide Zebra Heliconian caterpillars with food
Garden Features
Beyond plantings of annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees, additional visual interest is created by including structures; my garden has five large heavy-duty wood arbors, 76 linear feet of pergola and trellis, five wood decks of various sizes, two heavy duty wood potting benches, a 8 ½ x 12 ½ foot greenhouse, three water features, one bat and one mason bee house, rock gardens, three bird feeding stations, six wrought iron vine stands, and two small memorial gardens dedicated to friends. The arbors and trellises are on the property line to give privacy, a home for critters, and are covered with butterfly-friendly vines such as passionvines, pipevines, Evening Trumpetflower, also known as Carolina jessamine, and Crossvine.
I also like using ½ whiskey barrels for planters to grow grassses: Eastern Gammagrass, also known as fakahatchee grass, Muhlygrass, and Lopsided Indiangrass grow well in the barrels. Lopsided Indiangrass in my garden reminds me of the large stands I see of this beautiful grass swaying in the
Two of the many garden structures in Bill’s garden include a green house (top photo) and 76 linear feet of trellis/pergola (bottom photo)
breeze when I visit the wet and dry prairies in Bull Creek and Three Lakes Wildlife Management Areas in Osceola County where I love photographing rare Loamm’s and Arogos Skippers. These butterflies use Lopsided Indiangrass as a caterpillar food plant.
Food for Caterpillars: Trees, Plants, Bushes, and Vines
In butterfly gardening, it is always fun to share tips on the top plants, which vary by area and USDA zone. My top ten caterpillar food plants for USDA Hardiness Zone 9a gardens are:
1. Passionflower. My favorite is Passionflower ‘Incense’ but I also grow Bluecrown Passionflower, Purple Passionflower, Twoflower Passionflower, and Lady Margaret Passionflower.
2. Two species of milkweed: Butterfly Milkweed and Bloodflower, also known as tropical milkweed, grow well for me. When using cuttings avoid getting the white milky sap in your eyes.
3. Christmasbush
4. Cape Leadwort
5. Parsley-Dill-Fennel-Spotted Water Hemlock - any of these plants support Black Swallowtail caterpillars
6.Pipevines. I grow three different species but my favorite is Elegant Dutchman’s Pipe.
7. Lime Pricklyash
Butterfly Gardener
Photo top of page: Spicebush Swallowtail on Cardinalflower (left), Long-tailed Skipper eggs on Asian Pigeonwings (right)
Photo bottom of page: Orange-barred Sulphur laying eggs on Christmasbush
8. Asian Pigeonwings I enjoy observing Longtailed Skipper females egg stacking when laying eggs on this plant and the resulting caterpillars rolling protective leaf structures.
9 Wild Cherry
10. Sassafras
Nectar Trees, Plants, Bushes, and Vines in my Yard
Of course, both caterpillar food and nectar plants are necessary for a successful butterfly garden. My top ten nectar plants are
1. Snow Squarestem is by far the best nectar plant in the yard
2. Lantana particularly the large bushy types
3. Romerillo, also known as beggarticks
4. Sweet Almond Verbena
5. Cape Leadwort
6. Butterfly Milkweed
7. Giant Ironweed
8. Firebush
9. Turkey Tangle Fogfruit
10. Porterweeds, especially Light-blue Snakeweed and Changeable Velvetberry
Three arbors frame three large decks allowing garden visitors to view butterflies at close range
Closing Thoughts
The majority of trees, bushes, plants, and vines in my yard are native, but not exclusively. To add color, or to grow a species I discovered while traveling in another country, or simply to extend the range of nectar and caterpillar food sources, I include exotic and naturalized plants as well. While my butterfly garden works perfectly for me, around seven years ago I received notice of a code violation from the City of Jacksonville relating to excessive growth of weeds, grass, or noxious vegetation. I went to court to explain the benefits my yard provides and to explain its appearance. I’m pleased that I have not been contacted by the City since.
A longer version of this article appeared on the Florida Native Plant Society blog at http:// fnpsblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/my-habitat-garden-attracting.html
Common and Scientific Plant Names found in Florida Habitat Gardening in Zone 9a
Asian Pigeonwings - Clitoria ternatea
Cape Leadwort - Plumbago auriculata
Cardinalflower - Lobelia cardinalis
Christmasbush - Senna bicapsularis
Crossvine - Bignonia capreolata
Eastern Gammagrass, also known as fakahatchee grass - Tripsacum dactyloides
Elegant Dutchman’s Pipe - Aristolochia elegans
Evening Trumpetflower, also known as Carolina jessamine - Gelsemium sempervirens
Firebush - Hamelia patens var. patens
Giant Ironweed - Vernonia gigantea
Lantana - Lantana spp.
Lime Pricklyash - Zanthoxylum fagara
Lopsided Indiangrass - Sorghastrum secundum
Milkweeds: Butterfly Milkweed - Asclepias tuberosa; Bloodflower, also known as tropical milkweedAsclepias curassavica
Muhlygrass - Muhlenbergia capillaris
Parsley, Dill, Fennel, or Spotted Water Hemlock - Petroselinum crispum, Anethum graveolens, Foeniculum vulgare, or Cicuta maculata
Passionflower: Passionflower ‘Incense’ - Passiflora incarnata X cincinnata; Bluecrown passionflower - P. caerulea; Purple Passionflower - P. incarnata; Twoflower passionflower - P. biflora; Lady Margaret Passionflower - Passiflora x ‘Lady Margaret’
Bill, a retired Certified Gemologist Appraiser, a former owner of Berthet Jewelers, and an American Gem Society member for more than 30 years has been fascinated with butterflies since age 11. Since 2007 he has volunteered as a citizen scientist in many capacities for Florida Forestry Service, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida Natural Areas Inventory, NABA, and the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. His activities include surveying N.E. Florida’s conserved properties for critically imperiled and imperiled butterflies including fieldwork for a new species of butterfly recently discovered in the state of Florida. He presently is a member of the Strategic Planning Committee (North) of the Imperiled Butterflies of Florida Work Group.
Bountiful Blue Wood Aster
Text and photos by Mary Anne Borge
Pearl Crescent on Common Blue Wood Aster
Looking for a reliable source of late season nectar for butterflies, and color for a shade garden? Common Blue Wood Aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium) is your answer.
Where I live in central New Jersey, Common Blue Wood Aster begins its seasonal bloom in mid- to late September, and amazingly, at the end of November it’s still possible to find some blossoms. In my garden, Common Blue Wood Aster hosts a variety of late season butterflies, moths, bees and flies, all grateful for a reliable place to refuel.
Like all Aster family members, each flower ‘head’ of Common Blue Wood Aster consists of
many tiny flowers that bloom gradually over a period of several weeks, offering nectar and pollen to a variety of flower visitors. Each Common Blue Wood Aster flower head has an outer ring of ice blue petal-like ray flowers that are there to advertise this feast. The center of the display is made up of tiny tubular disk flowers where Common Blue Wood Aster makes its bountiful food available in exchange for the likelihood that visitors will transfer pollen to another plant of the same species, enabling pollination to occur.
The disk flowers of this plant are a pale yellow when they are in bud and when they first open. They turn pink or magenta as they age and have been successfully pollinated. This color change is a signal to pollinators, directing them to the receptive yellow
Common Blue Wood Aster with Sweat Bees
Yellow-collared Scape Moth and bumble bee on Common Blue Wood Aster
flowers which are not yet pollinated and that will reward them with nectar, and steering them away from those blossoms that are already satisfactorily pollinated and will not produce a nectar reward. This evolutionary adaptation makes the most efficient use of both the plant’s and the potential pollinator’s efforts. In the photos accompanying this article, notice that the potential pollinators are generally visiting the yellow disk flowers, those that are still open for business, not the pinkish flowers that have shut down their nectar production.
Asters are thought to be promiscuous. That is, they may hybridize across species. I have seen what appears to be evidence to support this, in the form of crosses between Common Blue Wood Aster and Calico Aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum), and Common Blue Wood Aster and Bigleaf Aster (Eurybia macrophylla). The foliage of the plants was consistent with that of Calico and Bigleaf Aster, but the flowers were blue, although normally they are white for these species, or for Calico Aster, sometimes pink-ish. There were Common Blue Wood Asters suspiciously nearby these unique plants. If you have multiple aster species in your garden, you may be rewarded with similar interesting hybrids.
Clouded Sulphur on Common Blue Wood Aster. The heart-shaped leaves give this plant another common name, heart-leaved aster.
Common Blue Wood Aster is native in much of the eastern half of the United States, and in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia in Canada. It can be found in a variety of habitats, including woodlands, meadows and roadsides. In a garden setting, Common Blue Wood Aster can tolerate shade to part shade, average moisture, and can grow to a height of one to four feet. Once established, it requires no special care.
Add Common Blue Wood Aster to your garden for a late season treat for butterflies, other flower visitors, and for you!
Mary Anne Borge is a naturalist, writer, photographer, and educator, based in New Jersey. She is a naturalist and instructor at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve in New Hope, Pennsylvania, a Pennsylvania Master Naturalist, and Associate Editor of Butterfly Gardener magazine. Her photographs have been featured in numerous publications. She enjoys sharing her love of nature through her writing and photography at her blog, the-natural-web.org.
Flower Fly on Common Blue Wood Aster
By Mary Anne Borge
Black Swallowtail Caterpillar
Known disguises: Resembles bird droppings when young. Osmeterium extruded from caterpillars’ head help disguise the caterpillar as a snake.
Known food preferences: Parsley family members including native plants like Golden Zizia, also commonly known as golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) and Spotted Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata), but will also eat common garden herbs like parsley, dill, fennel, and even the non-native Queen Anne’s Lace.
Special weaponry: When startled, caterpilars raise their fleshy orange-forked osmeterium which resembles a snake’s tongue. It emits a strong foul odor to frighten potential adversaries including birds, other insects.
Jane Hurwitz
Mary Anne Borge
Winter hide-out:
Spends the winter as a chrysalis that blends with the surface to which it is attached. Held tightly with silk, the chrysalis usually forms on a plant species other than the caterpillar food plant. Be sure to protect these beauties and other critters in your winter garden by leaving your spent herbaceous plants standing, if possible.
If capture is avoided:
Black Swallowtails will emerge and are in flight in Florida all year and April through September northward in the East. Far less commonly seen in western states, flight times are February through October.
Mary Anne Borge
Mary Anne Borge
Book Review
by Jane Hurwitz
The title of Heather Holm’s book is Bees, yet the subtitle holds a hint for those whose primary interests lie elsewhere. This Native Plant Forage Guide, as the book is identified in its subtitle, is not exclusive to bees; each plant listed in the guide indicates whether its flowers are visited by butterflies (as well as other interesting insects) and whether the plant provides caterpillar food. Although the guide is broad, indicating only butterflies in general rather than identifying specific butterflies, there is a wealth of information for gardeners, not least butterfly gardeners, who wish to expand their knowledge of native plants.
The book contains a lengthy and informative introduction, which gives gardeners insight into the lives of bees. Topics in the introduction such as environmental factors impacting bees, managing landscapes for bees, and information on pollination and floral attractants generally apply to butterflies as well as bees, leaving the reader with a deeper understanding of the natural world in our gardens.
Chapters 2-6 introduce five different bee families. Beautiful photographs of live bees draw the reader in, but it is the wealth of information that accompanies the photos that is truly impressive and informative. These five chapters are so much more than a field guide; Heather Holm has a deep understanding of native bees and is able to share her knowledge in an accessible and engaging manner. A key component of butterfly gardening is observation; reading Heather Holm’s observations on bees and their lifestyles opens the door to a more engaging outdoor experience no matter what insect you choose to observe.
Chapters 7-9 cover native trees and shrubs, plants that are often omitted from gardening books. The native distribution of each plant listed in the guide, whether woody or herbaceous, is rendered in a small map that accompanies the plant listing, indicating the state or province in which the plant occurs, in addition to its historic native range. Plants profiled are species that are native to the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Northeast regions of the United States, as well as Canada. It should be noted that many plants in the guide have a wide distribution that exceeds the aforementioned regions.
Although there are many differences between plants used by butterflies and those foraged by bees, the author points out an important distinction for all pollinators when introducing the chapters that detail bee forage plants. Many of the deciduous trees native to the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Northeast are windpollinated, therefore lacking flowers that would be visited by bees (or butterflies, for that matter). Despite their exclusion from the book, there is an abundance of native plants that serve important ecological functions despite their lack of bee forage (or butterfly nectar).
This handsomely produced and highly informative guide reminds me once again that when we garden for butterflies, we are creating habitat for other important and fascinating insects as well.
Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide by Heather Holm Pollination Press LLC, 2017. 10.2 x 8.2 inches, paperback, 224 pages.
