Plants to attract butterflies

[Acharn]

I live in Nakhon Sawan. Over the last ten years, the numbers birds has gradually declined. I suppose there's nothing I can do about that, it's mostly from habitat loss, as more houses are built in the neighborhood and trees are cut down. This year, for the first time, I notice a decline in the number of butterflies. That's happening worldwide, but up until this year we had a pretty constant population of four or five species pretty much year round. I googled "planting a butterfly garden," but I'm stumped by the plant names. Does anybody know the names of Thai plants that attract butterflies and make attractive places for them to lay eggs? Thai vernacular names are what I need.

[drtreelove]

I can't help directly, but if you post the English common names as well as botanical names of the plants, and photos, maybe some of us can come up with Thai common names. Some of these books may be helpful, 

Our daughter is a biologist and Thai high school science teacher. I'll ask her if she can make it a student project. No promises. 

 

To do it yourself, search the english plant names, do your best to select tropical plants, click 'images', print some photos and take them to show at your best local nursery. They will tell you if a specific plant is available or not.  

 

Be advised, when you attract butterflies and their eggs, the next stage in the life cycle of lepidoptera is the larval stage which are hungry, plant feeding caterpillars. Attracting desireables vs plant pest management can get complicated. 

[cooked]

Just a remark really, we have a hedge of Ixora, lovely bush, which is always full of butterflies, also our Adenium attract some nice ones (as mentioned above, some of them lay eggs leading to the plants being eaten, I remove them by hand.} Picture below.

[drtreelove]

13 hours ago, cooked said:

Just a remark really, we have a hedge of Ixora, lovely bush, which is always full of butterflies, also our Adenium attract some nice ones (as mentioned above, some of them lay eggs leading to the plants being eaten, I remove them by hand.} Picture below.

 

Excellent post and reminder.  "Remove them by hand." is an often overlooked option for plantings that are small enough to reach, and pests are limited in numbers.  Picking off, wiping off with a rag or cotton glove, washing off with a jet of water, is  "mechanical control",  a fundamental IPM method -.  Too often people reach for the chemical control first and don't want to get their hands dirty. Don't worry, most plant pests won't bite; they have specialized mouth parts for plant tissue.