Add paw paw trees to landscape to help attract zebra butterflies
After having been the director of the National Butterfly Center in Mission, my vision of nature was transformed. I could see more clearly the importance certain plants played in the sustainability of pollinators. I would urge you — as a gardener, a home-school teacher, or a science teacher looking to add more zip to your STEM requirements — to visit your local public garden during butterfly season.
A couple of days ago,
my walk around the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center at Georgia’s Callaway Gardens reminded me of one of the most beautiful native
butterflies in the Eastern United States, the zebra swallowtail. Twenty years ago, I filmed it during a TV project and had begun to think I might never see it again.
The zebra swallowtail is not endangered, but like the monarch, it has a pretty rigid diet for the caterpillar stage. That diet is the paw paw. In other words, no paw paw leaves, no zebra swallowtails. Fortunately, there are several species in the wild; the one known botanically as Asminia triloba has the
widest range.
Growing up in Abilene, I sang the song “Picking up Paw Paws” like many my age did. We bent over, probably an exercise, and put them in our pocket. No one knew what a paw paw was — most likely neither did the teacher. That day filming the zebra swallowtail, I learned personally. I ate my first paw paw. Holy wow! How great was the taste. And the fragrance from the cut-open fruit was an olfactory extravaganza; it reminded me of all the Caribbean fruit combined. Incredibly though, this was a native.
In fact, the paw paw is our country's largest native edible fruit. George Washington treasured the chilled fruit, and my guess is you will, too, if you ever get to experience it. The paw paw belongs in the Annonaceae or custard apple family. There are a lot of these fruits in the tropics, along with the handful of species in the United States.
So, this day in Callaway Gardens, where I am taking
photos by the hundreds, there it was. The zebra swallowtail flitted
around, supping on lantana — and about 30 feet away, there it was a 10foot-tall
paw paw tree. Build it and they will come.
As I looked at the photos, admiring how beautiful this butterfly was, I remembered a rare butterfly that showed up at the National Butterfly Center that looked similar: the dark kite. The butterfly, much more prevalent in Mexico and South America, is indeed related to the zebra swallowtail and has to have this same family of custard apple to survive.
The species of paw paw, Asminia triloba, is native from East Texas to Florida and along a line from Nebraska east to New York. This is great news for gardeners who want to plant a tree. To do so will allow you to teach your children and grandchildren about our heritage, eat some tropically delicious fruit and relish in the exotic beauty of perhaps our most stunning butterfly.