Black Swallowtail Butterfly | My Gardener Says…

On a recent late summer pruning foray into the garden, I was reminded of the importance of looking before cutting. Spring-blooming Gulf Coast Penstemon, Penstemon tenuis, well beyond its flowering and even its seed production time, annoyed me with its messiness. With tidying in mind and Felco pruners in hand, I prepared to snip off the offending bloom stalks, when I saw this stunning creature, a just emerged Black Swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes, drying its wings.

I often–though not always–look before cutting, so that I don’t destroy the home or nursery of some wild thing which has decided to rest or raise a family in the garden. It seems an easy thing to do, this business of wildlife awareness, but pressed for time, or hot and sweaty, the goal of garden clean-up easily becomes an obsessive one. The beauty of the new pollinator,

…transformed from the formerly green, yellow, and black caterpillar which slinks amongst the foliage, to its winged and adult stage ready to take on the flowering world, focused my attention on the why that I garden, not the gardening itself.

A transformational home, newly abandoned,

… and the knowledge that the “messy” plant provided a safe refuge for the morphing, are the only reasons I require to continue gardening for wildlife.

By Austin standards, temperatures for spring and summer of 2014 have been mild to downright cool. While still drier than normal, there has been some rain. I think those factors explain the exuberance of this Fennel, Foeniculum vulgare.

This guy is four and a half feet tall! Where does he think he is? Oregon?? I planted this particular specimen a year or two ago–it’s bumbled along for some time and since last fall, it grew.

And grew. I plant Fennel (and Dill, as well) to attract butterflies to my garden. Fennel is the host plant for several species of swallowtail butterflies. The adult butterfly lays her eggs on the Fennel, the eggs hatch and the caterpillars eat until they’re ready for their trip through the chrysalis and to eventual butterfly-hood. Sometimes a chrysalis will form on the Fennel itself,

but usually the large caterpillar transforms into its adult self elsewhere. Either way, planting Fennel is helpful in assuring a regular population of swallowtail butterflies.

I haven’t hosted hoards of caterpillars and resulting butterflies this year,

just a few, here and there.

And the caterpillars haven’t eaten the Fennel to the ground. Yet. Though they are efficient at stripping the foliage from the stems.

I have a dedicated butterfly garden in a different part of my gardens, as well.

I planted these Bronze and Green Fennel for the swallowtails last fall, along with some transplanted Tropical Milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, for the Monarchs. The Fennel has thrived, though the Milkweed froze in the winter and has been very slow to return.

Which is just as well as I didn’t spot one Monarch in my gardens during spring migration. Not. One. Monarch. That is scary and sad.

The Fennel provides food for swallowtails and some delicious salad sprigs–for me, that is. Several of my Fennel are beginning to bolt, which entails producing flower umbels,

and going to seed.

I’m snipping the flower panicles off to keep the Fennel in a growing mode, but summer heat will continue to encourage the bolting process. Fennel has survived summer before in my gardens and if it doesn’t get too hot this year, it could happen again. Time will tell.

The Fennel has been beautiful for these past eight months. Foliage is the main attraction with Fennel, for people and butterfly larvae. Delicate and lacy–it is also winter hardy, so it’s great to plant in the fall. It can overwinter, grow and be ready for butterfly happenings in the spring and summer. I’m particularly fond of Bronze Fennel and usually choose that variety though I plant both the Green and the Bronze Fennel in my gardens.

Butterflies don’t discriminate–their larvae munch on both. Fennel is a lovely, but unreliable, landscape plant. Gardeners must understand that the caterpillars will eat Fennel, possibly to the ground. And here in Austin, if the caterpillars don’t trash the Fennel, the heat will. I recommend that if you plant Fennel, be sure to situate it amongst other summer blooming perennials, so that when the Fennel disappears (either because of caterpillars or summer temperatures), there isn’t a gaping hole left in your garden.

Don’t even think about planting Fennel right now–that would amount to a major garden fail! Plant Fennel in your gardens next fall, when it’s cooler and there is some regular rain.
In time, you’ll have a beautiful garden addition, some yummy herbs for your salad and cooking pleasure, and an excellent host plant for beautiful butterflies.