Enjoy the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area
440 acres adjacent to the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, University of Florida/IFAS
Diversity matters - at least to monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). Milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) are the larval host plants for monarch butterfly. Pictured above along Oslo Road is a monarch butterfly nectaring on scarlet milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), a non-native, commercially available…
Our Florida state butterfly, the zebra longwing loves it, but lots of gardeners do not. It is common beggarticks (Bidens alba). Common names for this plant are about as common as this plant and include Spanish needles, butterfly needles, romerillo,…
We saw lots of butterflies when we visited the Captain Forster Hammock Preserve on 4/13/2019 including this white peacock butterfly (Anartia jatrophae) nectaring on common beggarticks (Bidens alba), as were an abundance of julia butterflies. Common beggarticks is a preferred nectar…
Julia butterflies (Dryas iulia) were amazingly abundant at the Captain Forster Hammock Preserve when we visited there on 4-12-2019. Near to the parking lot, they were sipping nectar from snow squarestem (Melanthera nivea) shown above. Nearer to Highway A1A, these…
