Craig Huegel smiled like a proud father as he gazed at a little black Atala butterfly ... coontie plants seemed to grow everywhere in the Florida wild, particularly along rivers’ edges.

A native butterfly ... Florida butterfly is making a surprising comeback. (SOUNDBITE OF BIRD CHIRPING) KERRY SHERIDAN, BYLINE: A small black butterfly with wings just over an inch long eats nectar ...

Some butterfly species are disappearing ... At the turn of the last century, coontie plants were over harvested to make flour. The plants disappeared from the Florida landscape by the 1930s ...

In 2017, FLORIDA TODAY ran an article ... and as a specimen plant. The Atala butterfly, Eumaeus atala, typically lays its eggs on the foliage of coontie plants. During her life, a single ...

The Florida Museum’s spring plant sale will feature pollinator-friendly native, host, and nectar plants like butterfly weed, golden alexander, white indigo, and more. Unlike previous years ...

The new pollinator/butterfly garden at the Ann ... But there are many non-native Florida-friendly plants that also provide nectar, fruits, seeds, and habitat for birds and wildlife.

Not only do butterflies depend on a variety of nectar-rich plants to feed ... planting a variety of beautiful host plants to ...

But Kerry Sheridan with WUSF reports a native Florida butterfly is ... A small black butterfly with wings just over an inch long eats nectar from a wildflower. CRAIG HUEGEL: You know, the thing ...