When the great naturalist John Ray was asked, “What is the use of butterflies?”, he replied “To adorn the world and delight the eyes of man”.
Tall white Michaelmas daisies have temporarily usurped my flowerbeds. I am delighted, for by day they attract bees and butterflies and at nightfall shimmer in the moonlight.
Daisies are, surprisingly, among the richest suppliers of nectar to insects, and Michaelmas and Shasta daisies are top of the list. Then there are herbs like lavender, rosemary, basil and catmint, and legumes such as lucerne, lupins and indigofera. Some indigenous flowering trees are excellent butterfly attractants as well, including the beautiful Cape chestnut (Calodenrum capense), the lemon-flowered honey bell bush (Freylinia lanceolata), the creamy forest elder (Nuxia floribunda) and the keurboom (Virgilia divaricata). Among the many indigenous flowers that entice butterflies are lobelia, nemesia, anchusa, cotula, hypoestes, tulbaghia and vygie.
Red flowers like the Crassula coccinea will draw the lovely Table Mountain Beauty to a hillside garden. This large orange-and-brown butterfly is the chief pollinator of our famous red disa (D uniflora).
Butterflies are second only to bees as pollinators and also play an important role in the food chain for birds, spiders and lizards.
The Chinese call them “flying flowers”, realising their magical dimension.
Butterflies are intent on three things: sipping nectar, mating and finding suitable host plants on which to lay their eggs. Although generally welcomed by gardeners, they tend to regard their larvae with horror. But most of the problematic caterpillars are those of moths, which far outnumber butterflies.
The good news is that many of our butterflies are extremely host specific, and choose plants we would describe as weeds as their larvae’s food supply.
The tawny African monarch needs milkweeds (Gompho-carpus, formerly Asclepias) for its young. These plants produce showy fruit in the form of light green “cotton balls”, sought after by florists. They can also blend attractively towards the back of mixed borders.
The garden acraea, another orange butterfly, picks leaves of the wild peach (Kiggelaria africana).
Eggs are laid in large batches, so if they escape parasites, many caterpillars, and later butterflies, will emerge. Two kinds of small green cuckoo as well as the Piet-my-vrou feast on these prickly-looking black larvae, so they, too, will add to your garden’s interest.
Then there is the universal painted lady butterfly, which chooses as one of its host plants the Cape weed (Arctotheca calendula), a dark-eyed yellow daisy which decorates our waysides in profusion in spring.
Butterflies in our area emerge as early as August. Many have a single brood, which usually peaks in October. But there are many about in autumn as well. The Cape autumn widow, a velvety, brown butterfly, is unusual in that it aestivates (is dormant) throughout summer and only emerges in autumn. - Cape Argus