Black Swallowtail
Papilio polyxenes · Butterflies
Black Swallowtail at cardinal flower
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 13 August 2026
A Black Swallowtail working a spike of cardinal flower stem by stem. Black Swallowtail caterpillars famously feed on carrot-family plants - dill, parsley, fennel, Queen Anne's lace - which makes a vegetable patch with any of those in it one of the easiest ways to attract the species without meaning to. The adult, with its rows of yellow spots and the blue on the hindwing, is a mimic of the poisonous Pipevine Swallowtail, which is why so many eastern swallowtails have converged on the same dark look.
Black Swallowtail at cardinal flower
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 13 August 2026
A Black Swallowtail working a spike of cardinal flower stem by stem in the August border at the Botanic Garden. It is the swallowtail of open country and gardens across the eastern United States, and cardinal flower, a native of wet ground, is one of its August stops.
Black Swallowtail caterpillars famously feed on carrot-family plants - dill, parsley, fennel, Queen Anne's lace - which makes a vegetable patch with any of those in it one of the easiest ways to attract the species without meaning to. The adult, with its rows of yellow spots and the blue on the hindwing, is a mimic of the poisonous Pipevine Swallowtail, which is why so many eastern swallowtails have converged on the same dark look.
Black Swallowtail
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 31 August 2025
A Black Swallowtail on a low blue-flowered plumbago in the August border, orange and iridescent blue spots along the trailing edge of the hindwing. It is the swallowtail of open country and gardens across the eastern United States, and a herb bed with dill or parsley in it will breed them.
The caterpillars feed on plants in the carrot family, which makes this one of the easiest swallowtails to attract on purpose with an unsprayed herb bed. The caterpillar has a trick of its own: a forked orange horn behind the head that pops out when it is alarmed, smelling of rotten oranges.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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