Native plants for butterflies
Butterfly gardening has two halves, and the nectar half is the easy one. These plants draw adult butterflies to feed — flat or clustered flowers they can land on, in bloom through the summer flight season. To actually raise butterflies rather than just host visitors, pair them with the caterpillar host plants their larvae can eat.
Bedfellow lists 886 of these.
The 30 most-observed are listed here — see all 886 in search.
- Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
- Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
- Large Beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus)
- Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos)
- Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
- Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
- American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
- Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana)
- Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica)
- Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris)
- Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
- Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)
- Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra)
- Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)
- Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
- Dutchman's Pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla)
- American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
- Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella)
- White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)
- Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
- Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
- Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida)
- White Oak (Quercus alba)
- Northern Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
- Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)
- Cut-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata)
- American Holly (Ilex opaca)
- California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum)
- Coyote Brush (Baccharis pilularis)