Counting butterflies this summer

By Roberta McQuaid
Turley Publications Columnist

It’s funny how one thing leads to another. Two weeks ago Saturday we loaded up the troops and went to a great book sale at West Brookfield’s Merriam-Gilbert Public Library. Over the years I have gotten some wonderful kid’s books there — titles that are right up my alley: “Sunflower Houses,” “Helper Cow,” “Country Dawn to Dusk.” You get the idea, books that highlight gardening, farming and simple living. This year’s selection did not disappoint. We filled a bag for five bucks and left with “Apple Picking Time,” “Homespun Sarah,” and “Butterfly Count” among others. When my preschooler asked me to read “Butterfly Count” by Sneed B. Collard III before her nap a couple of days ago I remembered that this book in particular would be too advanced for her — I had intended to put it away for the future. But there was no telling that to her, so we started reading it anyway.
The basic premise of the book highlights the North American Butterfly Association’s Fourth of July butterfly count with a simple story of a mother and daughter counting butterflies at a prairie restoration site named after the girl’s great great-grandmother Nora Belle. When Nora traveled west as a child, “regal fritillaries by the thousands danced over the bluestem grasses, setting the prairie afire with butterfly wings” yet today they are gone, “their prairie homes are farms and houses now.” The story ends with mother and daughter finding the rare butterfly in an undisturbed area of the preserve, the tiny cemetery in which her great great-grandparents are buried.
Reading the book got me thinking about what we could do as gardeners to encourage healthy butterfly populations. According to the North American Butterfly Association it isn’t enough to simply choose specific flowering “nectar” plants to attract butterflies, we must also choose plants that will feed caterpillars — that way we are providing for the entire life cycle of the insect. Some of the best nectar plants for our area include native wildflowers such as boneset, Joe-pye-weed, milkweed, black-eyed Susan and purple coneflower. Other common wildflowers like hawkweed, ox-eye daisy and Queen Anne’s Lace make good nectar plants as well. Top caterpillar food plants for our region include carrot, dill, parsley, fennel, milkweed, nasturtium and verbena. The largest number of butterfly species will be drawn to our yards if we imitate how plants grow in the wild. To do so, we should install a diverse mixture of trees, shrubs, perennial and annual flowers and herbs that bloom throughout the growing season. Trees such as aspens, willows, poplars, and wild cherry make great host plants for caterpillars. In addition, they give butterflies shelter from the wind, protection from predators and spots to roost at night.
A good habitat should also include some form of water source that will provide butterflies with additional moisture when dew and rain are scarce. “The Family Butterfly Book” by Rick Mikula (Storey Publishing, $29.95) offers a fun project to make with your kids called a waterless pond. Line a shallow hole in the garden with a trash bag, fill it with stones and add water. Dew will collect on the rocks in the morning and slide down the cracks. Butterflies can land on the rocks and sip water from the crevices. Put a narrow band of sand around your pond and this area will serve double-duty as a “puddling station,” a place for male butterflies to imbibe salts and minerals in preparation for mating. Another important feature in a butterfly garden is a basking station. To be able to fly, these solar powered creatures must warm up. In fact, Mikula reports that their flight muscles must achieve 83 degrees before lift-off! Light colored stepping stones placed about the garden will reflect the sun, allowing the insects upper and lower wing surfaces to heat up at the same time.
After researching this article I realize just how little I know about butterflies. Luckily, some of the plants mentioned above already grow on my property, and butterflies often frequent the premises. Although we were not part of NABA’s official butterfly count this Fourth of July, it might be fun to use the great pictures in “The Family Butterfly Book” to identify and count what we have around our home. Maybe we’ll even find a Painted Lady — reportedly it was in short supply last year. For more information on the North American Butterfly Association’s Fourth of July butterfly count consult their website at www.naba.org.

Roberta McQuaid graduated from Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. For the last 18 years, she has held the position of staff horticulturalist at Old Sturbridge Village. She enjoys growing food, as well as flowers. Have a question for her? E-mail it to journalregister@turley.com with “Gardening Question” in the subject line.