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SWFL 12TH ANNUAL BUTTERFLY CONF

SHOW THE LOVE!

Certify Your Love of Butterfly Gardening

Plant 3 nectar plants and 3 caterpillar food plants that are native to your region. Your garden will then qualify to join the growing number of NABA Certified Butterfly Gardens, helping to promote and increase butterfly habitat across the country

A letter from our President-April  2011

  Dear NABA members and friends,

 
Thank you, David Cooper!
 
   Ten people were very fortunate to go on a walk with Dr. David Cooper at Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW).   We enjoyed not only the beautiful scenery of the 5000 acre CREW sawgrass marsh but bits of history and folk lore.  CREW is lucky to have Dr. Cooper as a guide during the winter months.
   We got to see Palamedes and Queens nectaring on the beautiful lance leaf milkweed plants that lined the wide prairie-like path that we walked on, we viewed the marsh from the tower and walked along the butterfly boardwalk and then through the pop ash swamp.We saw a hawk sitting on its nest as we came out of the swamp trail.    What a beautiful day for a walk.  We saw quite a variety of wildflowers, dragonflies,  butterflies  yellow-bellied-sap sucker holes drilled into the trees and, orange trees thought to have come from Ponce De Leon's men throwing their seeds on the ground many years ago.  We learned that Alico road was named for the Atlantic Land Improvement Company and that it should be pronounced Al-i-co....not Alee-co. Our first encounter was with a bella moth a little skipper and a Pearl Crescent.  Dr. Cooper taught us never to put our shadow on a butterfly as this causes them to fly.The trail was dotted with wild petunias which David showed us are on a stem where the similar  twinflowers are axillary and have spots in the throat of the flower. Robin Gardener showed us that Elm trees have lopsided leaves. We saw many paw paw plants but the Zebra Swallowtail eluded us.  
   Hopefully you will be able to join us for our next hike. Pictures to follow!   My notes taken in the field are very sketchy so I welcome corrections and additions.
 
Gayle Edwards
 
Butterflies:Bella moth, Pearl Crescent, unknown small skipper,white peacock,twin spotted skipper,gulf fritillary, multiple palamedes swallowtails, gulf fritillaries, multiples queens, buckeye, great southern white, Eastern tiger swallowtail, cloudless sulphur.
 
Birds:  Red Bellied Woodpeckers, hawks and turkey vulture, yellow-bellied sapsucker
 
Wildflowers:   Blackroot,  Pluchea, Fleabane Daisy, St. John's Wort, Wild Petunia, Bluehearts, Coreopsis, Yellow Hawkweed, Rudbeckia, Small's Flax( Linum carteri),
Thistle, polygala nana, lyre-leaf sage, twin flower, Pineland Pimpernel ( Samolus valerandi), Marsh Pink ( Sebacia  stellaris), lanceleaf milkweed (asclepias lanceolata),  Baldwin's Milkwort,  Polygala grandiflora, Piriqueta,  Ten-angled pipewort, Mock Bishop's Weed, Bladderwort, White-top rush.  Big tall duckweed,  Elliotti pea, Lady Tresses Orchid.
 
Other plants of interest:    Corkwood (Stillingia aquatica), Southern Dewberry, Shiny Blueberry, Dahoon Holly, Possible Buckthorn, Coral Bean, Persimmon, Shoestring Fern,  Strap Fern,  Wild Coffee, False Nettle, Valencia Orange Tree, firebush
 

 

 Top 5 Garden Tips from NABA Certified Butterfly Gardeners
  • Never use pesticides; butterflies and their caterpillars may be killed.
  • Mulch around all plants, which will lessen the amount of water that plants need and at the same time, may provide shelter for some types of caterpillars.
  • Plant as many types of regionally native plants as possible, while eliminating any plants that are invasive.
  • Incorporate large rocks or gravel areas into gardens to provide basking spots.
  • Use rainbarrels catch rain from house gutters to reuse in garden. While not specific to butterfly gardening, rainbarrels are a growing trend with water conscious gardeners.