Butterfly gardening

South-western Australia has over 60 native species of butterfly, plus a few introduced species, such as the cabbage white, monarch and orange palmdart.

Many native butterfly species remain in the bushland areas where they breed, but there are about 17 species that may visit your garden if you live in the south-west of Western Australia. Seven of those species will not visit unless you live near a bushland where they breed. We can help the survival of the 17 species by growing the butterflies’ food-plants in our gardens, particularly the species of plant that their larvae (caterpillars) eat. This is called butterfly gardening. It allows the butterflies to breed, and thus increase their numbers.

As an example, the larvae of the yellow admiral eat only native pellitory or closely related plants, such as nettles. (See the yellow admiral’s life cycle). All butterflies go through the same stages of egg, larva, pupa, adult—but different butterfly species have different plants that their larvae feed on.

For most butterfly species in the south west, there is only one life cycle a year, and the adult butterfly appears in spring or early summer. Some species, however, have several cycles a year, and the butterflies can appear at any season.

Adult butterflies feed on juices, such as nectar from flowers. If we simply want to see butterflies in the garden, we can grow nectar plants that butterflies are fond of visiting. However, the most important plants to help butterflies survive are their food-plants.

See Butterflies and their food-plants for details about specific food-plants for each species.

You can help

If you would like to contribute to our knowledge of local butterflies by reporting species that breed in your garden, contact Matt Williams

Further Resources

Butterflies and day-flying moths of WA