Butterflies and weeds

My last post was about invasive weeds, bamboo grass. This post is about weeds that butterflies use as host plants. I used to madly pull up Pearly Everlasting and Pussytoes in my former yard. I did not know then that the American Lady used it as a food plant. Here in paradise there is not much of it in the lawn or garden, there is a lot in the road easement out at the main road though.

The female here is depositing eggs. These American Ladies are common here, rarely we get Painted Ladies to stop in.

American Lady on pussytoes see my page on American Ladies here.
These 2 photos were taken 2 doors down from me at an estate on 300+ acres, I now have permission to roam the estate freely. I found out there is the ruins of a pre-civil war mill called Old Turner Mill on the North Fork of the Little River beside the property. I'll be exploring that once the rainy weather quits.

Nothing to exciting you might think looking at this dull little skipper. Wait these are uncommon to rare and we get at least 2 broods of them here at paradise most years. This is an Hayhurst's Scallopwing, Staphylus hayhurstii and less than 1 inch across with the wings open. When the wings are closed it is the size of a pinky fingernail. More on this little skipper can be found at my Butterflies of the Carolina & Virginias Website.
Another testy weed you think, well yes it is Lambsquarters, Chenopodium album
Lambsquarters can be difficult to control. I pull out the ones in the way and leave a few for the Hayhurst's Scallopwing to use as a food plant.



Silvery Checkerspot, Chlosyne nycteis these brushfoot butterflies visit us once in a while. Wingstems and sunflowers are the food plants for these and there are lots of these native plants growing along the North Fork of the Little River not far from here. More at my web page on the Silvery Checkerspot.



Bonus image! Great Blue Skimmer, Libellula vibrans. This medium sized dragonfly likes landing on antenneas, any upright perch or as in this case a purple rope. Usually they like to hang around woodland edges and our gardens is that exactly.