Native plants for butterflies
Butterfly gardening has two halves, and the nectar half is the easy one. These plants draw adult butterflies to feed — flat or clustered flowers they can land on, in bloom through the summer flight season. To actually raise butterflies rather than just host visitors, pair them with the caterpillar host plants their larvae can eat.
Bedfellow lists 1028 of these.
The 30 most-observed are listed here — see all 1028 in search.
- Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
- Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
- Large Beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus)
- Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos)
- Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
- Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
- American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
- Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
- Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)
- American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
- Boxelder (Acer negundo)
- Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica)
- Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris)
- Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
- Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra)
- Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
- Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)
- Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
- Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla)
- Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
- Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella)
- American Holly (Ilex opaca)
- California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum)
- Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)
- White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)
- Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
- Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida)