Mike Malloy, known as Naples “butterfly guy” sells host and nectar plants for butterflies as well as tropical plants at the Third St. So. Farmer’s market every Saturday morning.

Abutilon (“Vesuvius red”): This group of plants is used as an annual up north. Here in Florida they are perennials blooming most of the year. The flowers are bell like in red and yellow.

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 ...

The butterfly group is concerned about other imperiled butterflies in South Florida and elsewhere. “Some people might argue extinction is a natural thing, that we lose species all the time ...

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 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 ...

Locally-owned nurseries with a good inventory of native plants can help you plan a butterfly garden. The Edison & Ford Winter Estates has a garden shop with a number of plants that specifically ...

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.