One morning on my daily garden walk, I see them. Beautiful caterpillars, snow-white with black dots and orange feet. They are munching on my Passiflora Incense vine
The caterpillars feed only on the passion vines, the adult butterflies feed on nectar and pollen. Their most favorite flower in the garden is the Lantana but they also like the blue plumbago flowers and Pentas. Of course they visit all other blooms as well.
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| Scary looking pupa of the Zebra Longwing butterfly |
From the egg laid to the emerging butterfly can take as little as 3 weeks. Longer if the temperatures are cooler.
So go ahead and plant a passion vine in your yard, the butterflies with thank you for it. Passion vine is also the host plant for the orange Gulf Fritillary butterfly's caterpillar.
ahh... so beautiful ... Yes I am getting a passion vine for sure I have one in red but the butterflies do not like the red.thank you for such a wonderful and informative post..
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yes, my red one has no caterpillars either.... I like your quote :)
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