Some of the best nectar plants are some that you might find on the side of the road or you might be attempting to erradicate in your yard. Consider keeping a patch of Spanish Needles (Bidens alba) in your garden. It is the white flower pictured with the Whirlabout Skipper Butterfly (Polites vibex) drinking nectar from it. The nectar is loved by many pollinators and is an important flower for honey production in Florida. By the way, the butterfly probocis is not like a straw, as it was thought to be until recently, but is more like a sponge.
Another common lawn weed is the Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora). You have to look closely to really appreciate the tiny flowers and delicate color shading . It is a very resilient ground cover and has been proposed as an alternative to grass for a lawn. The Frogfruit in the picture is begin fed upon by the White Peacock Butterfly (Anartia jatrophae), one of the most common butterflies seen at CHEC. You can find this butterfly and Frogfruit just to the left of the Information Kiosk.
It's not necessary to cultivate weeds to have native nectar plants. In the Butterfly Garden find the long tublular flowers of the Firebush (Hamelia patens) and Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens). The former is a large shrub that can be easily trimmed into a hedge. The latter is a vine that can cover a fence or grow up a trellis.
One of the easiest plants to grow is the Tropical Sage (Salvia coccinea). The bright red flowers bloom most of the year. The plant should be cut down every once in a while so that it does not get lanky and continues to bloom.
The main advantage to growing native plants is that they are well adapted to Florida's extreme conditions of drought and deluge and the pollinators have evolved with them over time.
