Landscape plants and wildflowers attractive to butterflies for nectar feeding

David Smitley<smitley@msu.edu>, MSU Entomology; Diane Brown, Rebecca Finneran<Finneran@msu.edu> and Erwin Elsner, MSU Extension; Joy Landis, MSU IPM; Paula Shrewsbury, Univ. of MD Entomology; Daniel Herms, The Davey Tree Expert Company, Kent, OH; and Cristi L. Palmer, IR-4 Project-Rutgers - May 01, 2019

Many of the flowering plants attractive to bees will also be visited by butterflies. However, butterflies are attracted to flowers almost entirely for feeding on nectar.

Lilac bush. Photo by Margaret Pooler, Bugwood.org.

Editor's note: Minor updates were made to the "Herbaceous plants attractive to butterflies" table in August 2019.

Many of the flowering plants attractive to bees will also be visited by butterflies. However, butterflies are attracted to flowers almost entirely for feeding on nectar. They do not intentionally seek or collect pollen for food for their young as do bees. Some pollen may become attached to their mouthparts, legs or bodies as they draw nectar from flowers, but not nearly as much as is found on bees. Because of this, as a group butterflies are not as important as bees for pollinating plants, and flowers that are poor pollen sources can still be very attractive to butterflies for food, if they are a good nectar source.

The immature (caterpillar) stages of almost all butterfly species feed on plant leaves. An adult butterfly might readily take nectar from numerous plant species, but their host plant range as a caterpillar is often restricted to one or a few closely related plant species. It is very important to carefully select plant species if supporting butterflies is a goal of your gardening or landscaping. The plant lists below are based on published nectar records for over 80 species of common or widespread butterflies found in the North Central U.S. Plants that are also hosts for butterfly caterpillars are noted. One of the goals of the national plan to protect pollinators is to increase milkweed habitat for monarch butterfly larvae. Planting milkweed will also help monarchs. The best way to do this is to purchase milkweed seed from a commercial supplier. For more information on gardening for monarchs, see Elsner (2015) in this document’s references.

Herbaceous plants attractive to butterflies

Like bees, butterflies seem to find perennial plant flowers more attractive than those of annual plants. It is also important to use mixtures of plants to provide for different flower types, plant height and blooming season. Certain annuals are helpful with this goal in that some bloom season-long.

Herbaceous plants attractive to butterflies
Common name	Genus species (scientific name)	Caterpillar host
Alfalfa	Medicago sativa	Yes
Asters and daisies	Aster spp. and related genera	Yes
Bee balm, bergamot	Monarda spp.	No
Black-eyed Susan	Rudbeckia hirta	Yes
Blazing star	Liatris spp.	No
Butterfly bush	Buddleia davidii	No
Clovers (especially red clover, T. pretense)	Trifolium spp.	Yes
Coreopsis	Coreopsis spp.	No
Dandelion	Taraxacum officinale	No
Dogbanes	Apocynum spp.	No
Goldenrods	Solidago spp.	No
Ironweeds	Vernonia spp.	No
Joe-Pye weed	Eupatorium spp.	No
Lantana	Lantana spp.	No
Milkweeds	Asclepias spp.	Yes
Mints	Mentha spp.	No
Orange hawkweed	Hieracium aurantiacum	No
Phlox	Phlox spp.	No
Purple coneflower	Echinacea purpurea	No
Speedwell	Veronica x ‘Sunny Border Blue’	No
Spotted Joe-Pye weed	Eupatorium maculatum	No
Thistles (but not “star” thistles)	Cirsium spp.	Yes
Vetches (but not crown vetch)	Vicia spp.	Yes

Black-eyed Susan. Photo: Diane Brown, MSU Extension — Black-eyed Susan

Ironweed. Photo: Erwin Elsner, MSU Extension. — Ironweed

Lantana. Photo: Diane Brown, MSU Extension. — Lantana

Prairie phlox. Photo: Ashley Bennett, MSU Entomology. — Prairie phlox

Trees and shrubs attractive to butterflies

In addition to feeding on nectar from tree and shrub flowers, many butterfly species will suck juices from over-ripe fruits once they have fallen to the ground.

Trees and shrubs attractive to butterflies
Common name	Genus species (scientific name)	Caterpillar host
Blackberry	Rubus spp.	No
Blueberries	Vaccinium spp.	Yes
Butterfly bush	Buddleja davidii	No
Buttonbush	Cephalanthus occidentalis	No
Labrador tea	Ledum groenlandicum	Yes
Lilac	Syringa spp.	Yes
New Jersey tea	Ceanothus americanus	Yes
Redbud	Cercis canadensis	Yes
Shrubby cinquefoil	Potentilla fruticosa	Yes
Staghorn sumac	Rhus typhina	Yes
Wild cherries	Prunus spp.	Yes

Lilac bush. Photo: Margaret Pooler, Bugwood.org — Lilac bush

Read the next article in this publication series: Flowers throughout the year

Or return to the beginning of this publication: How to protect and increase pollinators in your landscape

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).