Natural History, Horticulture
Team To Create Butterfly Mecca

By Brendan Best, MNH Staff Intern, and
Mark Hardin, Horticultural Services Entomologist

Staff Celebrates Butterfly Garden Opening

Staffers and friends of the Smithsonian's Horticulture Services Division who took a leading role in opening of the National Museum of Natural History's Butterfly Habitat Garden celebrate the exhibit's opening. From left, Donny Johnson, gardener; Judy Wells, Enid Haupt fellow; Mike Laskin, records assistant; Vickie DiBella, gardener; Paula McCloskey, museum technician; Robin Spear, contractor; Mark Hardin, entomologist; John Griffis Jr., intern; Nancy Bechtol, Chief Horticulture Services Division; Meredith Hubel, gardener; and Cheyenne Kim, gardener. (Smithsonian Photo by Eric Long.)

On a cool September afternoon, museum butterfly specialists Donald Harvey and Elizabeth Klafter were returning to their office after a visit to the U.S. Botanic Garden, the only place on the Mall that regularly attracted butterflies. As they walked past Smithsonian flower beds, the two discussed how much visitors might enjoy a close-up look at these ever-popular insects.

"The idea to create a butterfly habitat garden at the museum hit us both at the same time," remembers Klafter, and the two contacted the Smithsonian Horticulture Services Division (HSD) of the Office of Plant Services. It turned out that the horticulture staff had already been thinking along the same lines, says Chief Nancy Bechtol.

"The south side of the Mall has enjoyed the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden and the Enid Haupt Garden, both of which relate to and enhance the themes of the buildings they surround," she says. "We wanted to do the same for the north side by bringing an outdoor educational experience to the National Museum of Natural History."

The two offices quickly put together a team to design the Butterfly Habitat Garden along the east end of the museum's grounds. Bechtol, Harvey and Klafter were joined by Paul Lindell, Walter Howell and Mark Hardin of HSD and Sally Love, Sarah Grusin, Tom Thill and John Kress from the Museum of Natural History.

Others contributed design and content ideas as well. Through this collaborative effort - and with partial funding through a grant from the Smithsonian Women's Committee - the outdoor exhibit came to life.

The final design of the garden was created by Karen Swanson, an HSD intern from the University of Michigan, and Howell, an HSD garden supervisor. The garden is being maintained by HSD gardeners, led by Tom Brown and assisted by interns.

Descriptive signs and plant labels describe both the plants and the butterflies they attract.

Harvey and Klafter predict that the native plants in the garden will continue to attract many species of butterflies.

"One interaction will be butterflies as pollinators of plants," Harvey explains. "Flowers give nectar, and in exchange the butterflies help plants reproduce by carrying pollen from one plant to another."

The second relationship, he adds, is between butterflies and their caterpillars' host plants. Most species of butterflies lay their eggs on just a few closely related plants. Once the caterpillars hatch, they eat only the leaves of those plants.

More than 200 woody and 2,500 herbaceous plants have been woven into the garden. Making the garden attractive year-round while utilizing plants that are attractive to butterflies was the most complicated aspect of the design. Unfortunately, plants that butterflies lay their eggs on often have little ornamental value.

Some of the plants are actually food crops such as cabbage and fennel - both of which are in the urban garden habitat.

The first section of the garden is a simulated wetland habitat, characterized by spongy soils and seasonal flooding. Visitors might see a red-spotted purple butterfly on the leaf of a black willow, or the swallowtail warming its wings in the filtered light on the branch of a pawpaw tree.

Visitors may even notice small groups of male butterflies feeding - or in butterfly terms, puddling - around damp spots rich in nutrients needed for mating.

In the wood's edge, visitors should look for butterflies warming themselves on a tree trunk or feeding on tree sap.

In the wilderness meadow, a foliage path of bluestem grass is among the taller flowering plants. The profusion of color and cover will attract a variety of insects. Butterflies are among the few pollinating insects that can detect red, and visitors may notice the popularity of such flowers in this section.

In the urban garden section visitors how commercially available plants can be used to attract butterflies. Many of the plants found in this section are native to the mid-Atlantic region and can be found at local nurseries and garden centers. Sally Love of the Museum of Natural History's Exhibits Office says, "One of the themes of this section is, You can do it too!'"

The exhibit concludes by suggesting a variety of plants from different habitats, large groupings of flowers and sunny areas to turn a garden into a butterfly mecca.