November 4th, 2007
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Still lots of butterflies in the garden. I’ve seen a couple of Monarchs, though not on the milkweed but on the orange cosmos which seem to be the favorite plant of all types of butterflies.

When Margaret and I visited the butterfly garden at the Natural Gardener last week, the blue mistflower was by far the most popular butterfly plant. A hundred butterflies must have been hovering about. Neither of us had ever seen so many butterflies in one spot before. It looked more like an anime than real life; a sad commentary on how little life we are used to seeing in our modern world.

I rarely see a yellow Tiger Swallowtail in my garden. Usually I see females in their dark black and blue phase (unless those are black swallowtails–I’m not very good at butterfly identification; my eyes just can’t focus quickly enough). So this was a special treat. It was huge, by far the largest butterfly I’ve seen around here.
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

by M Sinclair Stevens

2 Responses to post “Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly”

  1. From GardenMomma (Chris) in Dallas:

    Amazing photos! Walking through a butterfly garden is absolutely enchanting. One of my favorite things in life to do! Thanks, Chris

  2. From Bonnie:

    Beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to get that detailed of a photo of a butterfly!