Butterflies
AND Blooms

The 6 Species of Butterfly and 6 Types of Blooms in the NATURAL BRIDGE CAVERNS SCAVENGER HUNT

Welcome to the Natural Bridge Caverns LEARN MORE page! Here you can learn more about the butterflies and blooms we’re featuring in our park during our Butterflies and Blooms event. Below you’ll find a little information about each butterfly and the blooms they love to drink from. By planting these blooms, you are helping these butterflies (and bees, and hummingbirds and more pollinators) thrive!

Butterflies

MONARCHS

Scientific Name: Danaus plexippus
Host plants: Tropical Butterfly Milkweed, other milkweeds

The monarch is North America’s most famous butterfly, seen from southern Canada to Mexico. Millions migrate south for winter, with generations breeding northward in spring. The final summer brood returns instinctively to Mexico. Nonmigratory populations exist in Texas and Florida. Their milkweed diet deters predators.

QUEENS

Scientific Name: Danaus gilippus
Host plants: Antelope Horn Milkweed, Tropical Butterfly Milkweed, other milkweeds

Found in open habitats, their milkweed diet makes them distasteful to predators. Adults may roost in groups overnight. In South Texas, they seem migratory but aren’t well studied. They fly year-round in the south, spring to fall elsewhere. Males have a black hindwing patch.

GULF Fritillary

Scientific Name: Agraulis vanilla
Host plants: Fetid Passionvine and other passionvines.

Found in southern North America, it flies year-round in frost-free areas and spring to late fall elsewhere. Easily attracted to gardens with passionvine, it thrives in sunny habitats like roadsides, fields, woodlands, and parks. Common in butterfly gardens, even in urban settings.

PIPEVINE Swallow Tail

Scientific Name: Battus philenor
Host plants: Swanflower (Dutchman’s Pipe), other pipevines

Flies from spring to fall, most of the year in the deep south (2-4 broods). Adults are poisonous because their caterpillars feed on noxious pipevine. Some other species of butterfly mimic their patterns to gain protection from predators. Flight is rapid and generally low, and they usually continue to flutter even when perched. Males have blue-green iridescence on their hind wings.

GIANT Swallow Tail

Scientific Name: Papilio cresphontes
Host plants: Wild lime and other citrus relatives

Flies from spring to fall, most of the year in the deep south (2-4 broods). Adults are poisonous because their caterpillars feed on noxious pipevine. Some other species of butterfly mimic their patterns to gain protection from predators. Flight is rapid and generally low, and they usually continue to flutter even when perched. Males have blue-green iridescence on their hind wings.

ORANGE Barred Sulhpur

Scientific Name: Phoebis philea
Host plants: Lindheimer’s Senna

Occurs regularly in extreme south Texas. Flies late summer to fall. Males are much less marked than females. Some females have heavy pink to red on both wings.

BLOOMS

TROPICAL Butterfly Milkweek

Scientific Name: Asclepias curassavica
Host to: Monarch’s, Queen, Gray Hairstreak
Bloom time: Spring to first frost
How to Identify: It typically grows as a subshrub to 2-3’ tall on upright stems clad with pointed, opposite, lanceolate leaves (to 6” long). Leaves are medium green sometimes with white midribs. Showy flowers with five sepals and five lobes appear in rounded axillary clusters in late spring to early summer. Flowers are red-orange with yellow hoods.. Flowers are followed by long, narrow seed pods (3-4” long) which split open when ripe releasing silky tailed seeds for dispersal by wind. Stems and leaves exude a milky sap when cut or bruised.
General: A herbaceous perennial native to the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Mexico. Naturalized in tropic and subtropic regions. Can grow up to 2-3 feet. Attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
Habitat: Full sun, medium water

GREGG’S Mist Flower

Scientific Name: Conoclinium greggii
Host to: Rawson’s Metalmark
Bloom time: Spring to late fall.
How to Identify: Is a perennial up to 2 ft. tall with palmate leaves deeply divided into three lobes which are again pinnately dissected. Small, purplish-blue flowers cluster together to form puffy, 2 in., cushion-like flower heads.
General: Native to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico states. Also known as Purple Palm leaf Eupatorium, this plant is an herbaceous perennial that attracts butterflies. It provides nectar to all species drawn to the divided flowers.
Habitat: Medium water, full sun to part shade, likes gravelly dry soil.

PENTAS

Scientific Name: Pentas lanceolata
Host to: Provides nectar to all butterflies but no one species host plant.
Bloom time: Seasonal bloomer and doesn’t die back in the winter.
How to Identify: It is a many-branched, somewhat sprawling plant that features 4” wide rounded clusters of star-shaped flowers. Elliptic to lanceolate dark green leaves (to 6” long). Flowers are pink, magenta, lilac or less commonly white.
General: This is anherbaceous perennial native to the Arabian peninsula and eastern Africa. They attract butterflies to their nectar.
Habitat: Likes full sun, medium water levels, likes well-draining fertile soil.

PARSLEY

Scientific Name: Petroselinum crispum
Host to: Black Swallowtail
Bloom time: Seasonal bloomer that doesn’t die back in winter.
How to Identify: It typically grows in a clump to 12″ tall and as wide. Triangular dark green leaves are finely divided into curly leaflets. Leaves remain harvestable until temperatures drop into the low 20s F but will remain strong throughout winter in warm winter climates. Plants will bloom in the 2nd year by sending up stalks to 2-3′ tall bearing compound umbels of greenish-yellow flowers but will lose flavor after it blooms.
General: Is an annual herb native to Greece and Yugoslavia. It is a culinary herb grown worldwide and can be used fresh or dried.
Habitat: Full sun to part shade, medium water levels.

PURPLE Passion Vine

Scientific Name: Passiflora incarnata
Host to:: Gulf Fritillary, Variegated Fritillary, Julia Heliconian, and Zebra Heliconian
Bloom time: April through September
How to Identify: Purple passionflower is anherbaceous vine, up to 25 ft. long, that climbs with axillary tendrils or sprawls along the ground. Intricate, 3 in., lavender flowers are short stalked from leaf axils. The petals and sepals subtend a fringe of wavy or crimped, hair-like segments. The pistil and stamens are also showy. Three-lobed, deciduous leaves are dark green above and whitish below. The fruit is a large, orange-yellow berry with edible pulp. The bloom colors can be pink, blue, and purple.
General: Native to the lower 48 states, this perennial vine spreads by root suckers.
Habitat: Water needs are low to medium, likes full sun to part shade, likes the soil levels to be dry to moist, is cold and heat tolerant, and grows in rich, non-saline clays, loams, and sands.

TEXAS Lantana

Scientific Name: Lantana urticoides
Host to: Provides nectar to all butterflies but no one species host plant.
Bloom time: April through October
How to Identify: A spreading shrub, much branched from the ground upward, branches sometimes with prickles. Frequent in brushy places and in woodlands. Bark light gray to light brown, tending to flake off. Young twigs nearly square in cross section, covered with short hairs visible under a 10x hand lens. Leaves opposite, up to 2 1/2 inches long, broadly ovate, pointed at the tip, flattened at the base, upper surface rough to the touch; margins coarsely toothed, teeth broad, pointed or rounded. Flowers colorful, red, orange, and yellow, tubular with four flared lobes; in dense, rounded clusters with a leafy bract subtending each flower, at the ends of long paired stems usually extending beyond the leaves, appearing from April to October. Fruit round, fleshy, dark blue to black.
General: Native to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico this perennial shrub has red orang and yellow blooms. Their native habitat includes fields, thickets, swamps, rich sandy woods, scrub, gravelly hills, flats, chaparral, and roadsides almost throughout Texas. Crinkly leaves give off a sharp aroma when touched and they can cause a skin rash.
Habitat: Low Water use, requires full sun, likes dry, poor well-draining soil.

HUMMINGBIRDS

Conservation and Protection: The International Hummingbird Society has great information on how people around the world are working to protect these tiny but powerful voices for conservation.

Hummingbird Banding: Hummingbird banding started long after songbird banding, so researchers don’t have nearly as much information on the tiny fliers as they do on other birds. According to the North American Bird Banding Program operated by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Canadian Wildlife Service, about 309,000 ruby-throated hummingbirds have been banded and tracked since 1960. By comparison, more than 30 million songbirds have been banded.

14 Proven Hummingbird Photography Tips:Hummingbird photography is amazing because hummingbirds are fascinating. There is no other creature on the planet like them, with their tremendous speed, precise aerial maneuvering, fierce determination and incredible iridescent glimmer, all on that diminutive feathered frame. They are truly a wonder of nature. Follow these tips to improve your hummingbird photography.