Butterflies and California Native Plants
Most of the butterfly pictures taken on this page and on the web site have been taken in the Las Pilitas Nursery, Santa Margarita, garden. They are all alive and often going about their business as usual undisturbed by the photographer (my father or myself.) If you have ever looked at dried specimens you will notice that although it may be more difficult to see identifying characteristics the live specimens are far more colorful and intense. Colors fade and change with drying and chemical preserves. You can also see behavior patterns, posture,etc. These are things you will never see in a shriveled, spread specimen!
Here is a simple butterfly garden for California.
or here is a more detailed listPlants for a California Butterfly Garden
Order Lepidoptera; Butterflies and Moths
Family Danidae Milkweed Butterflies
Family Nymphalidae Brush-footed Butterflies
California
Crescent, Phyciodes orseis
Family Papilionidae; Swallowtail and Parnassian Butterflies
Family Pieridae; White, Sulfur, Marble, and Orange-tip Butterflies
Family Riodinidae; Metalmark Butterflies
Family Lycaenidae; Hairstreak, Copper, and Blue Butterflies
Family Megathymidae; Giant Skipper Butterflies
Family Hesperiidae; Skippers
Family Saturniidae, Ceanothus Moths
Family; Sphingidae
Family Sphingidae Sphinx moths, Hummingbird Moths
Great
Ash Sphinx Moth
This will take a little while to load.
At about 100 butterflies per minute for 100 feet of terrain and it went on for a couple of weeks.
50 miles, is about 26000(100 foot strips)X 21,600 minutes(actually more)= 1/2 billion
Totally unscientific, but can give you a little bit of an idea how much nature is still left.
And it was much better 30 years ago.
