Anise Swallowtail with bees
Papilio zelicaon
Anise Swallowtail · San Diego Botanic Garden · 7 March 2026
An Anise Swallowtail above and two bees below on one spike of Pride of Madeira in a San Diego garden in March. The swallowtail is a Californian native of the hills and coast, and the plant is a Canary Islands echium grown all over coastal California for exactly this reason.
A single spike carries hundreds of small blue flowers that open over weeks, and the nectar is so abundant that beekeepers on the islands sell it as a honey in its own right. Three insects on one flower spike is a fair measure of how much a well-placed nectar plant can carry.
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