Butterfly Garden

Butterfly Garden

Friends of Green Cay

Enjoy Our Butterfly Garden!
A Certified Wildlife Habitat by National Wildlife Federation.
Now also a Certified Monarch Waystation.

Our Butterfly Garden provides the four basic habitat elements needed for wildlife to thrive: food, water, cover and places to raise young. As you walk along our garden, enjoy learning about the native plants and their importance to sustaining the life cycle of butterflies.

A Butterfly is mainly a day flying insect. Butterflies have large, often brightly colored wings and conspicuous, fluttering flight.

The earliest known butterfly fossils date back 40-50 million years ago.

Great Southern White Butterfly on Tropical Sage.

Cloudless Sulfur Butterfly on Firebush.

Ruddy Daggerwing Butterfly.

Long-tailed Skipper Butterfly.

White Peacock Butterfly on Cassia Plant.

Gulf Fritilary Butterfly.

Monarch butterfly caterpiller looking for a place to form chrysalis. It has left the milkweed and is moving toward other plants. They usually create chrysalis on plants other than their milkweed host plant.

Marc drying and testing his wings.

Enjoy our presentation on Marc the Monarch. From December 29 through January 19 we watched and documented as a Monarch butterfly caterpillar transformed into a beautiful butterfly. The caterpillar was enjoying eating the leaves on the Tropical milkweed host plants near the birdfeeders. We were able to enjoy watching the entire process as the caterpillar transitioned to a Tropical sage plant and created a chrysalis in full view of the volunteer gardeners. Many pictures were taken and shared with people passing by on the boardwalk that captured the beautiful transformation into a butterfly. Wow was the most common reaction to seeing this beartiful lesson in the life cycle of butterflies. Butterflies lay eggs that lead to the birth of caterpillers. Caterpillars go through 5 stages of growth getting larger each time. Mature caterpillars then form a chrysalis structure that protects them as they transform into butterflies. It was a real thrill to be able to watch this process unfold. Once the Monarch butterfly emerged and let the wings dry, we were able to see it was a male. Males have 2 black spots on their back wings. Marc the Monarch was born to the delight of many. Stop by our garden and learn about native plants and butterflies. Volunteers are usually available Friday mornings to answer questions.

Watch Marc the Monarch
transform from
butterfly caterpiller
into a beautiful butterfly!