Butterflies love warm temperatures!

I've yet to miss making at least one visit to my local botanic garden's Butterfly Pavilion for its summer SOAR exhibit.  The Pavilion opened for the first time on April 1, 2021.  It opened in May this year but I didn't visit until earlier this week.  Everyone, including members, are required to reserve their half-hour slots for entrance.  The earliest entrance time is 11am, probably because it offers reasonable assurance that the marine layer will have lifted and the butterflies will be active.  I scheduled the early slot to avoid the hottest part of the day.  While we haven't experienced the extreme high temperatures affecting much of California, it's still been on the warm side, with mercury readings in the mid-80sF (29C).

I arrived about a half-hour early and cruised the Fuchsia Garden, which is adjacent to the Butterfly Pavilion.  Volunteers were busy in the area during my last visit in June so I'd skipped it.

I can't identify this one but the flowers were plentiful

I didn't see a label for this one either but I was interested to see that stems had been braided to create something resembling a trunk

The orange color of these flowers appealed to me.  I was able to hunt down a name online.  It's a hybrid called 'Monterey'.

This one appealed to me as well.  It also had no visible label but I liked how it was mounted in a flat-backed pot.

After that brief ramble, I checked in at the SOAR desk and wandered through the Pavilion's exterior area while waiting to enter the Pavilion itself.

The outside area looked wilder than I'd ever seen it but then it was planted much earlier in the year.  I expect that the native butterflies and their progeny appreciated the protection and food sources it provided.

These were some of the individual plants I spotted, clockwise from the upper left: Achillea millefolium, some kind of aster, Grindelia, 2 varieties of Buddleia, Cosmos bipinnatus, and Heliotropium

There are signs providing general information about butterflies and the exhibit, as well as a view of what's called the "emergence chamber," where visitors can view butterflies still in their chrysalises. 

Description of the 4 stages of a butterfly's life

The emergence chamber and related Q&As

I queued up with others waiting to enter the Pavilion several minutes before 11am.  The volunteers let people enter in groups of three or four using a double door system to prevent butterflies from escaping.  They're very serious about managing the entrance and exit processes as I understand their licensing to run the exhibit requires them to contain the tropical species, presumably to avoid impact on native species.

I don't think I've ever seen the butterflies as active.  They were everywhere.

Like the Pavilion's exterior, the interior was planted with flowers and foliage attractive to butterflies.

The plants included everything from shrubs to bromeliads

As a side note, unlike some of my prior visits, I didn't see a single child freak out about being surrounded by butterflies or having one land on them

These were just a few of the flowering plants, clockwise from the upper left: Duranta erecta, Impatiens, Gloriosa, Pentas, and Salvia.  Other species I noted included: Ageratum, Dichondra, Fuchsia, Iresine, Tillandsia, and Verbena.

Although there were a lot of butterflies, the number of species appeared more limited than I'd seen during prior visits.  However, that may be related to the time of year, or my limited ability to discern individual species.  My phone's camera app helped with butterfly identifications and, although I attempted to verify these with other online sources, they can be only be construed as guesses.

The blue Morpho butterflies congregated in several feeding stations scattered through the exhibit, mainly with their wings closed

Battus polydamas, aka gold rim swallowtail

Hamadryas feronia, aka variable cracker (although it doesn't look like any of the other cracker butterflies I've seen online)

Heliconius charithonia, aka zebra longwing

Heliconius hecale, aka golden longwing.  I think the butterfly visible in the upper section of the photo on the right with its wings closed is a Siproeta stelenes.

The ID on this one came up as Libytheana, aka snout butterfly, but the wing coloration seems off to me and I didn't get a shot that showed its snout

Limenitis arthemis, aka white admiral

Morpho peleides, aka blue Morpho.  The butterfly on the right was so perfect (and immobile) that I initially thought it was a fake attached to the sign - until it flew away.

Myscelia cyananthe, aka blackened bluewing

Siproeta stelenes, aka malachite butterfly.  This species was almost as profuse as the Morpho butterflies.

Among the butterflies that landed on me were a Hamadryas februa (gray cracker) and a Morpho peleides (with wings closed).  It's very difficult to photograph these creatures when they're on your side or your shoulder!

At 11:25am, the volunteers advised visitors that they needed to prepare to exit.  Like the entrance process, that occurred in stages but visitors also had to twirl around so the volunteer could ensure than no butterflies were attempting to hitchhike out of there.

The temperature was already noticeably higher than when I'd arrived so I walked through only a few other areas on my way to the garden's exit.

Brugmansia near the Butterly Pavilion's exit

Tithonia diversifolia, aka Mexican sunflower and tree marigold

I got a half-decent photo of the turtle in the Pollination Garden's pond

Lagerstroemia hybrid, aka crape myrtle

On the way out, I saw signs advertising pending events.

There must be a big appetite for nostalgia in the area

That's it for me this week.  If you're currently getting toasted by high temperatures, I hope you see them come down soon.  Best wishes!

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party