Native butterflies are not only a beautiful sight in your garden, they are also important pollinators of native plants. If you want to attract native butterflies to your garden, you need to make sure you have a mix of host plants for the larva stage to feed on and nectar plants for the adult stage to feed on. Native butterflies are unfortunately disappearing due to habitat loss.
There are around 40 species of butterflies in or near Perth. They vary in size from small ones with a wingspan of less than 2cm to a large wingspan of 9cm. Some butterflies are best identified by seeing the underside of the wings rather than the top.
Below are some of the butterflies you may be lucky enough to see around Perth and the host plants you can plant to attract them include:
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Meadow Argus
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Saltbush Blue (Theclinesthes serpentata)
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Western Bitterbush Blue (Theclinesthes Hesperia) |
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Western Jewel (Hypochrysops halyaetus) Found north of Perth in Banksia woodlands. They are also attended by ants (Crenatigaster perthensis). |
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Australian Painted Lady (Vanessa kershawi) |
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Pea-blue (Lampides boeticus)
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Icilius Blues (Jalmenus icilius) Becoming rare still sighted in near Mundaring Weir |
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Inous Blue (Jalmenus inous) Becoming rare still sighted in Mandurah |
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Fringed blue (Neolucia Agricola) |
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Common Brown (Heteronympha merope) |
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Other introduced species you may also see include the Monach butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and the White Cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae). In addition to planting host plants, you can also plant nectar plants for the adult butterflies to feed on. Flat open flowering plants make it easy for butterflies to extract nectar. In addition to the plants listed above, suggestions of plant species suited to a range of butterflies are included below:
Grasses and sedges:
- Lomandrasp
- Poa poiformis
- Carex species
- Coast spear-grass (Austrostipa flavescens)
- Feather spear-grass (Austrostipa elegantissima)
Trees and large shrubs:
- Acacias (Acacia cyclops, Acacia lasiocalyxm Acacia lasiocarpa)
- Sheoaks (Allocasuarinasp)
- Eucalyptus species
- Tea Trees (Leptospermum)
Ground Covers and climbers:
- Native Wisteria (Hardenbergia comptoniana)
- Native Violet (Viola hederacea),
- Clematis species
Shrubs:
- Bossaiea species
- Bottlebrushes (Callistemon)
- Hop Goodenia (Goodenia ovata)
- Hakea species
- Blueberry Tree (Myopoum insulare)
- Rice Flower (Pimelea ferruginea)
- Green Carpet (Grevillea crithmifolia)
- Geraldton Wax (Chamelaucium uncinatum)
- Banksia species
- Bush Peas (Pultenaeareticulata)
- Australian Bluebell (Billardiera fusiformis)
- Waldjumi (Jacksonia sericea)
- Prickle lily (Acanthocarpus preissii)
- Purple flag (Patersonia occidentalis)
- Berry Saltbush (Rhagodia baccata)
These plants are best sourced from a native nursery, find one near you using this link. They should be able to assist you with matching plants that are suited to your soil type. Other things you can do to encourage butterflies to your garden include:
- Make sure your butterfly attracting plants are in a sunny spot as butterflies like early morning sunshine to warm themselves and retreat to cooler, shadier places during the heat of the day. Butterflies are delicate and do not like too much wind, so a spot that is fairly sheltered and protected, but gets a fair bit of sun is ideal.
- Mass planting of flowering plants, especially blue, yellow and red flowering plants are especially attractive to butterflies and make it easy for them to move through.
- Adding a few flat rocks to the garden will give butterflies a place to rest and warm up in the sun.
- As much as they love sunshine, butterflies also need moisture so adding a shallow dish of muddy water in a sunny spot will attract them too. Some butterflies will suck water and nutrients from the muddy water. Another option is spreading sand in an open area of a flowerbed and adding a mineral block (sometimes known as a cow lick) in the middle. Rain and dew will leach the minerals from the block into the surrounding soil for the butterflies to feed on.
- Butterflies also like small nooks where they can hide from predators in summer and stay protected in winter. Their preference is natural habitats such as hollow logs, stones with cracks in them, loose bark or a stack of firewood.
- Avoid using poisonous pesticides and products containing Bacillus thuringiensis.
If you are interested in finding out what butterflies are found near you, check out iNauralist and remember to record any species you see in you garden too. The Western Australian Museum is also worth a visit to see the gallery that displays examples of almost all of the 113 Western Australian species.
