Caterpillar Host Plants

Attract butterflies to your garden by providing the right plants. Nectar plants produce flowers that supple
nectar to the adults while host plants provide food for the caterpillars. Most butterflies are particular about
the plant on which it will lay its eggs. Eggs are laid on the plant that makes the best food for the caterpillars.
The leaves on these host plants are eaten by the caterpillars but usually grow back quickly. Do not move the
caterpillars off the plant and never spray insecticides or herbicides in your garden!
Caterpillar Host Plants
Butterfly Species
American Lady
American Snout
Anise Swallowtail
Black Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Checkered White
Clouded Sulphur
Cloudless Sulphur
Common Buckeye
Common Checkered Skipper
Common Wood Nymph
Coral Hairstreak
Dainty Sulphur
Eastern Comma
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Giant Swallowtail
Gray Hairstreak
Great Purple Hairstreak
Great Spangled Fritillary
Gulf Fritillary
Hackberry Emperor
Harvester
Henry's Elfin
Monarch
Mourning Cloak
Orange Sulphur
Painted Lady
Pipevine Swallowtail
Queen
Question Mark
Red Admiral
Red Banded Hairstreak
Red Spotted Purple
Southern Dogface
Spicebush Swallowtail
Spring Azure
Tawny Emperor
Variegated Fritillary
Viceroy
Western Tiger Swallowtail
Zebra Swallowtail
Host Plant
Everlastings, pussytoes, cudweeds, artemisia
Hackberry
Parsley, dill, fennel, citrus, anise, parsnip
Parsley, rue, dill, celery, carrot,
Broccoli, cabbage, cresses, nasturtium, capers, mustards
Mustards, peppergrass, winter cress, bladderpods
Clovers, alfalfa, legumes
Partridge pea, senna, cassia
Paintbrush, prairie paintbrush, toadflax, snapdragon vine, foxglove, plantain,
monkeyflower, ruellia, verbena
Mallows
Grasses
Wild cherry, wild plum, chokeberry
Tickseed sunflower, dogweed, yellow bitterweed, marigold, asters
Nettles, elms, hops
Wild cherry, wafer ash, prickly ash, spicebush, red bay, sassafras, sweet bay, lilac, tulip
tree, cottonwood, basswood
Citrus, rue, prickly ash, wafer ash, wild lime, torchwood
Butterfly weed, black persimmon, lead plant, locoweed, Lindheimer scarlet pea,
bluebonnet, clover, winter vetch, winecup, dollarweed, globe mallow
Mistletoe growing on oak, ash, cottonwood, juniper, mesquite
Violets
Passion vine, maypop
Hackberry
Wooly aphids (caterpillars are carnivorous)
Redbud, American holly, Mexican buckeye, blueberry
Milkweed
Willow, cottonwood, birch, aspen, hackberry
Alfalfa, clovers, legumes, locoweed, wild blue indigo, bluebonnet, rattlebush, vetches
Yarrow, basket flower, sunflower, ironweed, bluebonnet, ribwort, plantain, nettles, lantana,
globe thistle, artemisia, mallows
Pipevines
Milkweed
Elm, hackberry, hops, nettles
Nettles, false nettles, pellitories
Rotting leaves
Willow, black cherry, oak, aspen, cottonwood, poplar
Dalea, false indigo, clover, kidneywood, Lindheimer scarlet pea, legumes
Spicebush, sassafras, laurels
Flowers of dogwoods, legumes, sumac, meadowsweets, blueberry,
viburnum, wild cherries, hollies
Hackberry
Passion vine, flax, violets
Willow, poplar, cottonwood, aspen
Cottonwood, ash, willow, alder, aspen, sycamore, wafer ash
Pawpaw