Caterpillar host plants
A caterpillar host plant is one that a butterfly or moth will lay eggs on and whose leaves its larvae can digest — a much shorter list than the plants adults will sip nectar from, because most caterpillars can only eat the few plants they co-evolved with. This is also the bird garden: a pair of chickadees needs thousands of caterpillars to raise one brood, and they come off native plants or not at all. Expect chewed leaves; that is the plant working.
Bedfellow lists 895 of these.
The 30 most-observed are listed here — see all 895 in search.
- Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
- Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
- Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
- Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
- Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)
- Large Beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus)
- Tufted Evening Primrose (Oenothera caespitosa)
- Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos)
- Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
- Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
- Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
- American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
- Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)
- Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
- Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)
- Boxelder (Acer negundo)
- Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica)
- Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris)
- Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
- American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)
- Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra)
- Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
- Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)
- Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
- Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans)
- Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla)
- Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
- American Holly (Ilex opaca)