Pollinator Garden
The original Butterfly Garden has flooded many times. After the last hurricane, we decided to add a new area in LESA for pollinators. The students learn about butterflies, bees and birds and how to help them thrive.
LESA is a Monarch Waystation.
"We provide milkweeds, nectar sources, and shelter needed to sustain monarch butterflies as they migrate through North America" |
Monarchs use their SENSES to help them find food: They use their antennas to smell They have compound eyes to see the flowers. They taste the nectar with their feet. The taste receptors on their feet are called "tarsi" |
A monarch caterpillar needs to eat milkweed plants to grow.
Adult female monarchs lay tiny yellow eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves. Milkweed is the "host" plant for Monarch Butterflies. The eggs will hatch in 3-12 days. The little caterpillar will eat the milkweed and grow 3000 times it's size in two weeks!
Adult female monarchs lay tiny yellow eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves. Milkweed is the "host" plant for Monarch Butterflies. The eggs will hatch in 3-12 days. The little caterpillar will eat the milkweed and grow 3000 times it's size in two weeks!
There are many kinds of milkweed plants. All have a milky sap inside that is poisonous to many insects and animals. In LESA we have tropical milkweed, native milkweeds, and giant milkweed. The milkweed sap helps protect the monarch from predators.
When the caterpillar is fully grown, it will find a safe place to change into a chrysalis (pupa). After about two weeks, the adult monarch butterfly will come out (eclose). What an amazing metamorphosis!
Other butterflies also lay their eggs on specific "host" plants.
The butterflies lay the eggs on the host plants, and the caterpillars that hatch eat the leaves. When it is fully grown, the caterpillar makes a chrysalis and goes through metamorphosis to turn into a butterfly.
The butterflies lay the eggs on the host plants, and the caterpillars that hatch eat the leaves. When it is fully grown, the caterpillar makes a chrysalis and goes through metamorphosis to turn into a butterfly.
In LESA we have host plants for many different butterflies:
Milkweed: Monarch, Queen and Soldier
Fennel, Dill, Parsley: Eastern Black Swallowtail
Wild Lime: Giant Swallowtail
Corky Stem Passion Vine: Zebra Longwing
Passion Vine: Gulf Fritillary
Cassia: Sulphur
Plumbago: Cassius Blue
Pellitory: Red Admiral
Tangled Frog Fruit: White Peacock
Milkweed: Monarch, Queen and Soldier
Fennel, Dill, Parsley: Eastern Black Swallowtail
Wild Lime: Giant Swallowtail
Corky Stem Passion Vine: Zebra Longwing
Passion Vine: Gulf Fritillary
Cassia: Sulphur
Plumbago: Cassius Blue
Pellitory: Red Admiral
Tangled Frog Fruit: White Peacock