Red Admiral host plant: mint family??
Anne Kilmer
viceroy at gate.net
Wed Aug 5 04:38:14 EDT 1998
Sheri Moreau wrote:
>
> Rumor hath it that there is a plant in the mint family (possibly a hyssop?)
> that serves as a host plant for Red Admirals. I've been unable to identify
> such a plant. Can anyone help out?
>
> Also, supposedly Red Admiral larvae will eat hops leaves, however
> experiments with several varieties of hops this summer have been fruitless.
> Is there a particular variety they prefer (bad as some beer lovers I know..!).
>
> Ideally, I'm trying to come up with a non-stinging plant that is easy for
> teachers to raise in elementary school butterfly gardens. Baby's Tears
> (Urtica ssp), while non-stinging, can be finicky.
>
> TIA! Sheri (webmistress at mty.com)
We use false nettle: Boehmaria cylindrica. Actually, although it was on
our lists, it volunteered in the zoo butterfly garden, from which many
local gardeners have acquired their starts.
Here, it's a nice little native weed. I try to discourage local fanatics
from attempting to establish stinging nettle. We have enough unfriendly
plants here already.
I suspect it gets that name cylindrica from all the rolled leaves it
acquires. Most of them contain little piles of frass. It also hosts a
moth ...
Anne Kilmer
South Florida
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