My Asheville butterfly sanctuary

Planting for butterflies works

Heather Rayburn

9/15/2024

Hello friends, welcome to the first blog post on my new website! Going forward, I’m going to post about:

  • how I've trantransformed my 0.4-acre yard into a butterfly sanctuary;

  • how you can do the same;

  • why butterfly numbers are plummeting;

  • how to take up the wonderful hobby of butterflying; and

  • how to help scientists learn more about butterflies.


I can only think of one thing more peaceful and magical than standing in a meadow, forest, wetland, or sand dune watching butterflies: finding a new species of butterfly in my urban garden in Asheville, NC.

Creating butterfly habitat has become one of the most deeply moving and profound experiences in my life as an environmentalist. It’s one of the rare places where a single individual has the ability to make measurable, meaningful, and positive impact on the environment in a short time.

In 2024, I recorded a record 16 butterfly species in one day in the yard on August 25!

Butterflies lay their eggs on specific plants that their butterflies can eat. I took the photo above of the Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus), pictured on Anaise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), on 9/5/24. The Silver-spotted Skipper is one of the beauties that I noted on August 25.

According to the newly released "Butterflies of NC, SC, Va., and Georgia" by LeGrand, Pippen, Carter, and Howard, the Silver-spotted Skipper lays its eggs "strictly on leguemes (Fabaceae), often woody ones or vine species." Here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, the authors report that the Silver-spotted skipper favors Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) as its host plant.

In my next post, I will list all 16 of the butterfly species that I had in my yard on the record-breaking day of August 25, 2024, along with their caterpillar host plants. (In the meantime, I'll try to figure out how to let you subscribe to my blog posts.) Until then ... cheers, Heather