Butterfly Garden

The Butterfly Garden is designed with plants that attract butterflies and meet their needs. The garden includes:

• Host plants on which butterflies lay eggs and where their larvae, the caterpillars, feed
• Nectar plants which provide food for adult butterflies
• Shelter plants that provide protection from wind, rain and predators

The goal of the garden is to showcase plants and educate local gardeners about plants which can be found and grown in their gardens to attract local butterflies. A field guide for butterfly identification, written by the Fort Bend Master Gardeners Entomology Group, is available as a resource to help the public identify eggs, caterpillar stages, chrysalis and adult butterflies, as well as their host and nectar plants. The garden serves as an interactive, educational exhibit for young and old alike.

The table below shows the host and nectar plants.

Common Name	Botanical Name	Host/Nectar
Almond Verbena (tree)	Aloysia virgata	N
American persimmon (large tree)	Diospyros virginiana	H/N
Bay tree, Red bay (tree)	Persea borbonia	H/N
Bee Balm	Monarda sp.	N
Bluebonnet	Lupinus texensis	H/N
Blue-eyed grass	Sisyrinchium bellum	N
Bottle brush dwarf	Callistemon viminalis	N
Button bush (Chinese) (small tree)	Adina rubella	N
Button bush (small tree)	Cephalanthus occidentalis	N
Cassia, Candle stick plant (small tree)	Cassia alata	H/N
Cassia, Flowery Senna (small tree)	Cassia corymbosa	H/N
Cestrum	Cestrum aurantiacum	N
Citrus, calamondin	Citrofortunella microcarpa	H /N
Cone flower, purple	Echinacea sp.	N
Coral Honeysuckle	Lonicera sempervirens	N
Coreopsis, Tickseed	Coreopsis sp.	N
Cuphea, Cigar plant	Cuphea ignea	N
Dahlberg Daisy	Thymophylla tenuiloba	N
Dill	Anethum graveolens	H/N
Duranta	Duranta erecta	N
Fennel	Foeniculum vulgare	H/N
Firespike	Odontonema cuspidatum	N
Frogfruit	Phyla nodiflora	H/N
Gaillardia, Blanket Flower	Gaillardia sp.	N
Gaura	Oenothera lindheimeri	N
Golden Rod	Solidago altissima	N
Hamelia, Hummingbird bush (shrub)	Hamelia patens	N
Kidneywood, small tree	Eysenhardtia texana	N
Lantana (pink, yellow, orange)	Lantana camara	N
Lantana, (red, orange, yellow)	Lantana urticoides (L. horrida)	N
Mallow, Rose Mallow	Hibiscus moscheutos	H/N
Mexican bauhinia (small tree)	Bauhinia mexicana	N
Mexican Flame Vine	Senecio confusus	N
Mexican Mint Marigold	Tagetes lucida	N
Milkweed, Antelope Horn	Asclepias asperula	H/N
Milkweed, Aquatic Milkweed	Asclepias perennis	H/N
Milkweed, Butterfly Weed	Asclepias tuberosa	H/N
Milkweed, Green Milkweed	Asclepias viridis	H/N
Mist Flower Blue	Conoclinium coelestinum	N
Oxalis, Purple shamrock	Oxalis triangularis	N
Parsley	Petroselinum crispum	H/N
Partridge Pea	Chamaecrista fasciculata	N
Passion vine	Passiflora incarnata	H/N
Pentas, Egyptian Starflower	Pentas lanceolata	N
Pipevine, White Veined	Aristolochia fimbriata	H/N
Pipevine, Calico	Aristolochia littoralis	H/N
Pipevine, wooly	Aristolochia tomentosa	H/N
Powderpuff (dwarf), Fairy Duster	Calliandra emarginata	N
Rockrose, Pavonia	Pavonia lasiopetala	N
Rue	Ruta graveolens	H/N
Rudbeckia, Giant Cone Flower	Rudbeckia maxima	N
Rudbeckia, Black-eyed Susan	Rudbeckia fulgida, ‘goldstrum’	N
Rudbeckia, Brown-eyed Susan	Rudbeckia triloba	N
Russian sage	Perovskia atriplicifolia	N
Salvia	Salvia greggii	N
Salvia	Salvia coccinea	N
Salvia,	Salvia farinacea	N
Salvia, Black and Blue	Salvia guaranitica	N
Salvia	Salvia sp.	N
Shasta Daisy	Leucanthemum sp.	N
Shrimp plant	Justicia brandegeeana	H/N
Snake Herb	Dyschoriste linearis	N
Sunflower	Helianthus Sp.	N
Turks cap	Malvaviscus arboreus Var. drummondii	N
Verbena, Homestead	Verbena sp.	N
Verbena, Prairie Verbena	Glandularia bipinnatifida	N
Vitex, Chaste tree	Vitex agnus-castus	N
Winecup	Callirhoe involucrata	N
Yarrow, Desert Eve Yarrow (pink)	Achillea millefolium	N
Yarrow (yellow)	Achillea sp.	N
Yarrow (native, white)	Achillea millefolium var.occidentalis	N
Zinnia, old fashioned tall	Zinnia sp.	N
Zinnia, dwarf	Zinnia sp.	N

In the following table you can see the shelter plants used in our butterfly garden.

Common Name	Botanical Name
Dahoon Holly, small tree	Ilex cassine
Ginger	Zingiber sp.
Grass
Vinca variegated, Lesser Periwinkle ground cover	Vinca minor
Wood Fern	Thelypteris kunthii (Desv.) Morton
Yaupon Holly, small tree	Ilex vomitoria
Rose, Ellen’s Rose (Remembering Ellen)	Rosa sp.