The plantain you want is the narrow leaf plantain, also called buckhorn or ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata). I transplant mine from the front lawn to my backyard flower beds where it grows better since it's not competing with the grass and clover in my lawn.

~ Judy

The book "caterpillars in the field and garden" lists the vetch family (vicia) as a host for the northern cloudywing( a small spread wing skipper in your range.) there are other vetches, specifically milk vetches listed for several blues. the one with the biggest range being the eastern tailed blue. I have wild vetches. from what I can tell the louisiana vetch. it has somewhat elongated leaves from other vetches pictured on the field guides, it blooms tiny clusters of blue violet sweet pea like flowers and makes a flat seed pod about 1 1/2 inch long. I have not found any eggs, but I'm hoping. apparently the birds that like my garden fence also love the seeds because they are sprouting just below the birds favorite perches. so at the least they provide food for wildlife. I recently had my garden certified as a habitat by the national wildlife federation so I count that as a source of food. most places where the vetch is growing wild it is cut before it makes seed.and if worrying about butterflies being hit by cars is obsessive you will have to count me in. I nearly cry when I hear the mosquito spraying trucks because I know I'll find dead butterflies in the morning. and the senseless thing is we still have mosquitos.
my solution for growing wildlings as I call the natives in my lawn is to keep them in plastic flower pots.some are burried a little and sit at the edges of my flower beds some are just on a patch of grass that won't grow for whatever reason. I don't have to dig a bed and they don't invade the space I've alloted to "prime" plants. they usually don't mind if they get too watery and I seldom have to figure out a way to water them specifically.Hope this helps. J

www.herbiseed.com

I have been looking for a source of various 'weed seeds' and look what Michael Belt (whose own website deals with things much larger than my piddly orders LOL) sent me!!

I am SO impressed. Good price on P. lanceolata, too.

Hint: If you can get a whole area in the stuff, you don't have to mow--it's quite attractive.

Here is a link that might be useful: Herbiseed

Judy, Oh good, then I know that I definitely have the narrowleaf plantain. I already knew that the broadleaf kind is here, but if nothing eats that, then I guess it wouldn't do me much good anyway. I just wasn't sure if what we call buckhorn was also narrowleaf plantain. Thank you for clearing that up, and now I know that I can dig some out of the lawn this spring and try to start it somewhere. It sounds like yours is doing well for you. Have you gotten any cats on it at all?
I'm hoping that that more flowers I have here the more butterflies will show up. Heaven knows I sure have more than enough this year to plant. I love it!
Cathy

Butterflyalley, I really should get a caterpillar book someday. It would be so much handier than to keep looking things up on the net. I'm not so sure I want to keep the vetch for one butterfly, especially since there is so much crown vetch around, i.e. along the highways for ground cover. That's probably another reason for the decline of butterflies. Between road crews mowing places they never mowed before and with all the crown vetch along the highways crowding out probably just about anything in its path, I imagine that the butterflies have lost a lot of their habitat on the sides of roads.
I hope you find some cats on your Louisiana Vetch. If you do, let us know. I always love to hear about everybody's finds. When I find a cat, it's like discovering buried treasure. Yes, it sounds like the birds there are helping to spread the seeds around. I like to plant for both the birds and the butterflies, although now I'll definitely have more planted for the butterflies. I guess you must have a lot of food there for our feathered/furred/winged friends if your place is certified.
Well, it's good to know that I'm not the only one who's obsessive about the butterflies. I would about cry too when the spraying goes on. Sometimes I wonder if people don't know what all that stuff kills or if they don't even care. Count me among the ones who don't like mosquito spraying. If people would just go back to pre-chemicals, we'd be much better off. It's a lot of nonsense, all this spraying and powdering of things! Then the birds eating the insects that have been poisoned end up being poisoned themselves, so they are no longer around to eat the insects that the people are trying to get rid of. The whole things is just so stupid! If only the higher ups would quit with the spraying and work to rebuild our bird and bat populations. Of course, then I guess more butterflies would get eaten. I don't know if there's an answer to this dilemma.
That's a good idea you have with keeping the "wildlings" in pots buried in certain places. Yes, I can imagine how some can invade other areas that you want for other plants.

onafixedincome, I'll take a look at the website further. For now I just looked at their homepage and it looks like they only sell to companies/larger places, i.e. not individuals or am I wrong about that? I'm glad to see more and more "weeds" being sold. Our butterflies might stand a chance yet. Thanks for the link.

Well, when I asked Michael for a small-order source, that's what he sent me and, since they list amounts down to 25 grams of seeds, I'd think that individual sales are not out of the question. :)

Oooh, okay, you'll have to excuse me, I'm a little slow today. lol Thanks for straightening me out. I guess because my head hurts I probably can't think straight. Ha.

Hi Cathy!
I'm glad you have the right kind of plantain. I've had Buckeyes lay eggs on mine and the caterpillars grew faster when they ate the plantain as opposed to the ones that ate snapdragons. I also have the broad-leaf kind of plantain growing around the edges of my lawn (I'm sure my neighbors hate the "weeds" in my yard), but nothing seems to use that as a host.

~ Judy

Hi Judy,
Yes, I'm glad I have the right kind of plantain too. :-) I just wasn't sure if buckhorn and narrow-leaf plantain are the same thing but yippee they are! I'm glad to hear that you had Buckeyes do so well on the plantain. My goal is to have at least two host plants for each type of butterfly that I'd like to attract to my yard, and I'll have so many nectar plants outside that if a butterfly can't find something to its liking, then it's pretty darn fussy. I started snapdragons indoors to plant outside next month. They're about 2" tall right now and look great, so I hope that between the plantain and the snapdragons, I'll be able to get Buckeyes here this year. I guess your neighbors are just tough out of luck that you have weeds. lol Where I live we all have weeds. Nobody sprays and the dandelion blows all over the place in the spring. Some people would have coronaries if they saw the weeds here. Ha! Best of luck to you this year.
Cathy

Wow - wish I could find some in my yard. I thought that was what I had, but now I don't think so. I can't find anything in any of the weed ID sites that looks like my plants. They grow like plantain, but without the ribbing. Stems are fuzzy, but leaf is very thin and green front and back. After growing in a rosette for awhile, they begin to grow up, maintaining the leafy growth on the stems. I'm waiting to see it flower because that may help me better ID it.

I have some cirsium vulgare in the lawn that I am letting grow for the painted ladies, too. I also figured out that what I thought might be QAL's is actually wild chervil. The BSTs may like it since it's in the same family.

Last year I let the chenopodium grow and had the little scallopwings all over the place. They are small butterflies, and I never could find the eggs or cats. I'm assuming they are so tiny they are difficult to locate.

Then, I have that little prostrate daisy that the Dainties loved so much last year, too. I think Linda wants some of that. I mean they were all over it in the dozens and dozens.

Anyway, if anyone has any idea what my "weed" might be, let me know.

Susan

Susan, See my other post. :-)
Cathy

Susan, I have some lil plantain seedlings I can bring when we have out Garden party.