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Butterfly Garden

Pennsylvania Pellitory - host plant for Red Admiral

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

I have seen a fair number of Red Admirals this year, and I wondered where they were coming from. I read in an excellent book called "Ecology of Center City Philadelphia"

http://fitlersquarepress.com/ecology-of-center-city-philadelphia/

...that Red Admirals are common in the city because their host plant is a common weed here, Pennsylvania Pellitory. I have looked at a lot of pictures of this plant, and finally found some growing in a pavement crack just around the corner from me. I took a cutting to try and root it, because I basically have no sense of shame about picking weeds in broad daylight on a busy street. If that doesn't work I could go back and try to get the plant, although it's kind of tough digging a plant out of a pavement crack.

http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/pn_pellitory.htm

Parietaria pensylvanica is a member of the Nettle family, but hopefully it's not sting-y, or if it is I'm about to find out the hard way. Anyway, will report back if I can successfully grow it.

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Comments (8)

jane__ny
7 years ago
Good luck! You can always look for some that have gone to seed and collect that. Maybe easier to deal with.

Jane
Jacob Berg
7 years ago
Shady Oak butterfly farm sells the plant plus they also sell False Nettle which is a better plant because they host many different species other than just the Red Admiral, they host Commas, Question Marks, and Red admirals of coarse.
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Some of those probably came from my house! :) This year I only found one tiny little white cocoon in a red admirals nest, so parasitization was WAY down, probably the reason for the explosion. They use Boehmeria cylindrica/false nettles here, and, if you've got a wet/damp spot in your yard, that would be a good choice. They're an attractive plant, and they're nettles without the stinging spines. Susan in Oklahoma finds them on elm trees, and they use regular stinging nettles elsewhere. Anything in the Order Urticales might be used by them, although they've never used my hops vines. The only place I know of where you can order false nettles is from the Shady Oak Butterfly Farm in Florida, but I checked their site, and it's not listed. If you still want them later in the summer or in the fall, I can send you some seeds. Sherry
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Comments (14)
Thank you all! I was sure it was, but needed confirmation from the experts. I was just thinking that I really don't want to plant stinging nettle, so I will research and see which of Leafheads suggestions will do best here. This will be my learning summer, as last year I only had BST cats, and did not pay attention to what else might be around, or I did not have the amount of nectar and host plants that I do this year to attract the different butterflies. I have seen several bright orange and brown butterflies the last few weeks, but I haven't been close enough to see the specific markings, there are so many with those colors. I never saw them nectar or go to any plants as if they were laying eggs. One kept going to my tomato and pepper plants but then fluttering all around the garden, but never stopping on anything. I will put out some fruit today just incase the Red Admiral comes back. Debra
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Comments (16)
Martha, Late next month (if I can manage to have them ready by that time) I'll be giving away various kinds of seeds for a SASBE. False nettle is one of the seeds. If you'd like to try it, maybe you want to wait and see if there is anything else from my list that you'd like. I've gotten to raise Red Admirals because of having false nettle. Personally, I'd rather have false nettle than stinging nettle. I'm already allergic to many of the plants that I grow for the butterflies and would hate to think how I'd react to stinging nettle. Just the name scares me away. ;-) Cathy
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Comments (6)
I've got some of this in a flower bed on the side of the house and I'd been debating whether or not to yank it, now I definitely won't and I'll let it co-exist w/ the other flowers. Mine has a softer look than the ones in the link so I did a bit of poking around and found a pic that looks a lot like mine. I'll link below incase any other newbies aren't sure. Thanks for the heads up, Nat Here is a link that might be useful: link
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theparsley
Original Author
7 years ago
Oooh, I'd love to get commas and question marks.

There's a weedy passageway behind my building where I suspect the Pennsylvania Pellitory may already be growing. I'd like to encourage more of it to grow there if I can. I may try to collect some seeds, but I suspect the seeds are very small and fiddly to deal with.
theparsley
Original Author
7 years ago
My cutting rooted! It is now in a pot of soil on my windowsill. I'll transfer it outside once it gets established.
MissSherry
7 years ago
Congrats, congrats! False nettles (what I grow for red admirals and question marks) will root in water, very easy to root. Maybe it's a characteristic of the nettle family, I don't know!

I sure hope you're successful with your urban butterfly garden!

Sherry
theparsley
Original Author
7 years ago
Here's a picture of the new plant
MissSherry
7 years ago
That's an interesting looking plant, especially the placement of the flowers! It doesn't grow here.

Sherry
theparsley
Original Author
6 years ago
I did not manage to collect any seeds from the little pellitory plant I grew last year, but I recently picked a new plant out of a sidewalk crack in the same vicinity where I found the plant growing last summer. I got it to root and have it in a pot outdoors, but it looks a little scrawny yet. Wondering how best to raise a plant that naturally likes to grow in pavement and wall cracks!

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?what to do with this little guy?

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