 California
Native flowers used by the Painted Lady Butterfly
One of their favorite flowers is Lobelia
dunnii. A small water loving perennial with bright blue
flowers. Also, like many other butterfly species, they like
California
aster, Aster chilensis.
California
aster is a floriferous perennial about two feet in height.
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The Painted Lady Butterfly is found
throughout most of the world.
It is similar to the West
Coast Lady as they both have many small dots on the underside
of the hind wing. The west coast lady has an orange spot along
with the white ones on the edge of the upper fore wing. The
American
Painted Lady has two very large eye spots on the underside of
the hind wing.
California
Native Plants eaten by the larva of the Painted Lady butterfly
The Painted Lady butterfly eats mainly Cirsium
spp. In California, California
Thistle, Cirsium californicum, and Red
Thistle, Cirsium proteanum are common. White
forget-me-not, Cryptantha spp., and
Fiddle-neck, Amsinkia spp. are also eaten to a lesser
degree. Mallow, Malva spp. and Stinging
Nettle, Urtica spp. are also eaten but not as much so.
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