When trees are planted into a landscape there are many reasons behind it. Some want shade, others want distinct blooms or foliage, and still others want to attract certain things into the landscape. These are all native trees that are going to bring different types of butterflies into the landscape or garden area.
PawPaw Tree
The PawPaw Tree (Asimina triloba) is from the Custard Apple family and will get up to thirty feet in height and spreads to approximately twenty feet. It is a tree that prefers to grow in sunny spots or in partial shade; no total shade for this one. This is called the Poor Man’s Banana tree because the yellow fruits that it has will ripen and taste like a banana. There are deep red flowers and leaves that will turn a lovely yellow in the fall. These banana-like fruits are the food for larval zebra swallowtail butterflies and that is why they will flock to these trees.
Serviceberry Tree
The Serviceberry tree (Amelanchier arborea) can be a shrub or a tree depending on its pruning and is from the Rose family. It will get up to thirty feet in height. There are over forty different bird species that eat the fruit so this tree will attract those as well as butterflies, but it is the food preference of the gypsy moth. The tree has white flowers and purple/red fruits that appear like berries. It is this fruit that the birds enjoy.
Carolina Buckthorn
The Carolina Buckthorn (Frangula caroliniana) is from the Buckthorn family and gets up to twenty feet in height. This will have pretty flowers and foliage all year long. With the fragrant blooms, it will attract both birds and butterflies to the landscape. The flowers are yellow and bell shaped while the foliage is shiny and turns colors in the fall. This is a tree that will need a full sun area or at least partial sun. There will be red berries produced, but all parts of it are poisonous.
White Ash
The White Ash tree (Fraxinus americana) is from the Olive family and it will get up to eighty feet tall and have a spread of up to seventy feet. There are seeds to the White Ash that are the food source of birds, but because it is a larval plant for both the mourning cloak butterflies and the tiger swallowtail, it needs to be in the landscape. There is lovely foliage that bursts into color in the fall and it is a great shade tree. It needs to be planted in full sun for best results.
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