“If you have the right plants, you can attract any butterfly,” he said, noting nectar plants are important. Florida’s state butterfly is the zebra longwing, which can be found at Butterfly Dans.

He said the Schaus’ Swallowtail butterfly benefits because storms open up the canopy in the butterfly’s habitat. “That allows sun to penetrate to the forest floor, creates sort of an abundance of new ...

Some of the Atala butterfly’s favorite nectar plants include Spanish needles (Bidens alba), Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), Blue porterweed (Stachytarpheta jamaicensis), Wild coffee (Psychotria ...

Coreopsis is Florida’s state wildflower and there are 11 native species from which to choose. C. leavenworthii is the most common in our area and is easily found in the nursery trade.

The Florida Native Butterfly Society and its more than 400 butterflies used to live at The Butterfly Estates tourist attraction in downtown Fort Myers. Then they were forced out in July after new ...

The plants disappeared from the Florida landscape by the 1930s, and so did Atala butterflies. Then one day in 1979, a botanist named Roger Hammer was walking around on Virginia Key near Miami ...

Butterfly count numbers are often high at the Edison Estates because of their butterfly plants, both in the garden shop and in the gardens themselves. And those plants managed to weather Hurricane ...

Some butterflies are disappearing — falling to factors like pesticide use and loss of habitat. A native butterfly is making a surprising comeback in Florida, where it was thought to be wiped out.