A wonderful and effective way to watch butterflies is to entice them with plants that they and their larvae (otherwise known as caterpillars) use as food. No site is too small to create a butterfly garden. You can begin to meet the needs of butterflies by adding flowers and herbs to an existing flower bed or container garden. Trees, shrubs, and ground covers are also used by butterflies and these can be included in areas throughout your landscape. A colorful grouping of butterfly-attracting plants will help butterflies locate your garden when they are flying through the neighborhood.
A bonus of creating a butterfly garden is that it will probably attract not only butterflies but also other flying pollinators including bumblebees, moths, and hummingbirds. You can turn your backyard or even your small patio into a Wildlife Sanctuary.
Choose the Butterfly Garden Site
An adult butterfly’s activities are all oriented around the sun. They use the sun to navigate and to increase their body temperature which is necessary for strong flight. They use nectar from plants that grow in full sun. So it’s important that you locate the butterfly garden in sunny areas of the landscape.
In addition, because butterflies use up more energy flying in windy areas, they prefer feeding in areas where they do not have to fight the wind. So choose a sunny site out of the wind. In a windy area, create a hot spot for butterflies by planting on the south or southwest side of a building, fence, or hedge.
Good plants for containers include fuchsias, sweet alyssum, garden sage, dianthus, and lavender. For containers, avoid tall annuals such as tall marigolds, tall zinnias, and cosmos.
What butterflies can you expect to see in the Pacific Northwest?
Some Common Pacific Northwest Butterflies
| Food plants = | Plants eaten by butterfly larvae (caterpillars); also called host plants. |
| Nectar sources = | Nectar-producing flowers and other nectar sources, such as manure and rotting fruit that are used by adult butterflies. |
The following list includes some of the common butterflies found in different areas of the Pacific Northwest:
| Anise swallowtail | |
| Food plants: | Desert-parsley, fennel, carrot, garden parsley, cow-parsnip, seaside angelica. |
| Nectar sources: | Butterfly bush, desert-parsley, penstemon, garden mint, zinnia, lantana, coltsfoot. |
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| Western tiger swallowtail | |
| Food plants: | Big-leaf maple, willow, aspen, poplar, cottonwood, sycamore, cherry, alder, apple, serviceberry, hawthorn. |
| Nectar sources: | Common lilac, butterfly bush, mock-orange, rhododendron, blackberry, thistle, phlox, garden mint, lily, lavender, verbena, wallflower, honeysuckle, sweet William, clove pink, giant-hyssop. |
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| Pale swallowtail | |
| Food plants: | Buckbrush, cherry, hawthorn, cascara, alder, hardhack spiraea, oceanspray, currant, coffeeberry. |
| Nectar sources: | Oceanspray, penstemon, columbine, and those listed for Western tiger swallowtail. |
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| Pine white | |
| Food plants: | Pine (especially western white and ponderosa pine), Douglas-fir, fir, hemlock, red-cedar. |
| Nectar sources: | Butterfly bush, dusty miller, daisies, coreopsis, lobelia, goldenrod, strawflower. |
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| Orange sulphur | |
| Food plants: | Alfalfa, clover, and other legumes. |
| Nectar sources: | Alfalfa and other legumes, mustard, thistle, aster, red-twig dogwood. |
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| Cabbage white (Cabbage butterfly) | |
| Food plants: | Cabbage, broccoli, radish, mustard, nasturtium, spiderflower. |
| Nectar sources: | Butterfly bush, money plant, blackberry, coreopsis, dandelion, thistle, sweet pea. |
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| Sara orangetip | |
| Food plants: | Winter cress, nasturtium, moneyplant, rockcress. |
| Nectar sources: | Cherry, strawberry, monkey flower, dandelion, violet, rock cress, coltsfoot. |
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| Brown elfin | |
| Food plants: | The flower parts, buds and seed pods of apple, salal, buckbrush, bitterbrush, manzanita, rhododendron, azalea, bog-laurel, Labrador tea, oceanspray, blueberry, sedum, kinnikinnik. |
| Nectar sources: | Cherry, willow, osoberry, bitterbrush, winter cress, blueberry, wild-buckwheat, kinnikinnik. |
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| Spring azure | |
| Food plants: | Flower parts and seeds of dogwood, oak, buckthorn, apple, madrone, viburnum, cherry, plum, sumac, blueberry, escallonia, cotoneaster, hardhack, manzanita, oceanspray, cinquefoil, salal. |
| Nectar sources: | Cherry, plum, willow, mountain-lilac, rock cress, winter cress, escallonia, blackberry, cotoneaster, milkweed, forget-me-not, dandelion, violet, miner’s lettuce, many plants in the mustard family. |
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| Silvery blue | |
| Food plants: | Mostly lupine; also wild pea, vetch, clover and other legumes. |
| Nectar sources: | Cherry, plum, coneflower, desert-parsley, lupine. |
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| Lorquin’s admiral | |
| Food plants: | Willow, chokecherry, aspen, oceanspray, cottonwood, hardhack spirea, cherry, apple. |
| Nectar sources: | Thistle, mustard, blackberry, giant-hyssop, Barrett’s penstemon; also rotting fruit, animal droppings, carrion. |
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| Red admiral | |
| Food plants: | Mostly stinging nettle. |
| Nectar sources: | Butterfly bush, daisy, aster, thistle, dandelion, goldenrod, gayfeather, ageratum, milkweed, candytuft, alfalfa, sedum, wallflower, fireweed, red clover, mallow, sea-holly, garden mint, red-valerian, penstemon, spiraea, germander. |
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| Painted lady | |
| Food plants: | Mostly thistle; also, sunflower, pearly everlasting, stinging nettle, borage, hollyhock, legumes. |
| Nectar sources: | Oregon-grape, rabbitbrush, butterfly bush, zinnia, dandelion, thistle, gayfeather, aster, daisy, cosmos, garden mint, sweet William, red-valerian, red clover, milkweed, pincushion flower, wallflower, candytuft, coneflower, aster. |
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| Mourning cloak | |
| Food plants: | Elm, cottonwood, poplar, willow, birch, hackberry, hawthorn, wild rose. |
| Nectar sources: | Willow, butterfly bush, milkweed, rock- cress, Shasta daisy, daphne; also tree sap and rotting fruit. |
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| Milbert’s tortoiseshell | |
| Food plants: | Stinging nettle. |
| Nectar sources: | Willow, butterfly bush, lilac, thistle, daisy, goldenrod, marigold, ageratum, stonecrop, wallflower, aster, dandelion, calendula. |
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| Mylitta crescent | |
| Food plants: | Thistle. |
| Nectar sources: | Pearly everlasting, hawkbit, goldenrod, aster. |
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| Satyr comma (Satyr anglewing) | |
| Food plants: | Stinging nettle. |
| Nectar sources: | Dandelion, aster, blackberry; also rotting fruit, tree sap. |
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| Common wood nymph | |
| Food plants: | Grasses. |
| Nectar sources: | Coneflower, garden mint, sunflower, fleabane, penstemon, spiraea, mock-orange, alfalfa, clematis; also rotting fruit, tree sap. |
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| Woodland skipper | |
| Food plants: | Grasses; caterpillars feed at night. |
| Nectar sources: | Bluebeard, lavender, butterfly bush, oregano, coreopsis, pearly everlasting, statice, black-eyed Susan, thistle, dandelion, marigold, fall sedum, lobelia, aster.
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More information about butterflies of the Pacific Northwest:
This book Butterflies of the Pacific Northwest is a field guide beautifully illustrated with color photography throughout. Covering 118 of the most commonly encountered butterflies in Washington, Oregon, and parts of California, Nevada, Idaho, and Canada
