You can attract Gulf fritillary butterflies to your yard and garden by providing food plants (flowers), caterpillar host plants, water, and shelter for the butterflies. Here are some tips for the plants to include in your garden for Gulf fritillaries.
Gulf fritillary butterflies (Dione vanillae — formerly Agraulis vanillae) are orange, black, and silver-spotted. They spend the winter in Florida and migrate north in the summer. This orange butterfly is primarily found in the southern parts of the U.S., but it can also be found in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America.
Caterpillar Host Plant for the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly
The native purple passionflower vine (Passiflora incarnata) is the host plant for the Gulf fritillary caterpillar. I have this vine planted on a trellis in my front garden, which is covered in caterpillars each year.
They are voracious eaters and may entirely deleaf the vine some years. It’s amusing to watch the bright orange caterpillars with black spikes munching away on the vines. The caterpillars start out very tiny, grow to be about 1.5 inches long, and then migrate to higher spots (like the eaves of our house) to make cocoons.
To help this butterfly thrive and reproduce, plant the host plant for their larvae: the passionflower vine. This is the number one item that should be in your garden to attract these butterflies. They seem to be able to find this vine from far away.
Learn how to grow the purple passionflower vine.
Flowering Food Plants for Gulf Fritillary Butterflies
Providing flowering plants that offer nectar is an important step to bringin Gulf fritillary butterflies to your yard. I generally recommend using native plants in your butterfly garden, especially when feeding native butterflies.
Native salvias, bee balm, asters, and others are great, but the fritillaries also love to feed on lantana, zinnias, blue anise sage, Tithonia, pineapple sage, and other plants.
See a list of flowering plants that provide nectar and host plants for butterflies. Mexican sunflower, zinnias, and purple passionflower are three of my favorites to include in a butterfly garden.
What to Plant in Your Butterfly Garden for Gulf Fritillary Butterflies
If you’d like to encourage these butterflies to spend time in your garden, there are a few things you should do. As with all wildlife, they require food and water, shelter, and places to reproduce. By planting flowers that feed the adult butterflies and the purple passionflower vine that they require for reproduction, your garden will attract Gulf fritillary butterflies.
