Butterfly House Plant Identification Guide

PLANT IDENTIFICATION GUIDE The Tropical Butterfly House features plants from tropical areas around the world. There are over 100 species growing here. Use this guide to identify some of our favorite residents.

Please look with your eyes and do not touch. Every flower picked reduces the butterflies’ food supply.

NECTAR PROVIDERS These flowering plants are a major food source for the butterflies. The flowers provide a sugar rich liquid called nectar. The butterflies visit these plants to feed on the nectar.

Senecio confusus Lantana camara Pentas lanceolata Mexican Flame Vine Shrub verbena Egyptian Star Cluster Mexico to Honduras West Indies Yemen to Tropical East Africa

Stachytarpheta jamaicensis Ixora coccinea Clereodendron ugandense Jamaican Porterweed Jungle Flame Butterfly Plant Widely dispersed in the Tropics India, Sri Lanka Tropical Africa

Psiguria umbrosa Euphorbia millii Heliotropium arborescens Psiguria Vine Crown of Thorns Heliotrope Central America Madagascar Peru Fabulous Foliage Plants grown for their foliage. Foliage (leaves) come in all shapes and sizes! Here are some of our favorites.

Cyperus papyrus Wonderleaf Philodendron Egyptian Paper Rush, Papyrus African Mask Brazil, Ecuador, Peru Egypt to Tropical Africa Philippines, Indonesia

Located under the arches, near the Space Needle pacificsciencecenter.org Showy Flowers These are some of our most frequently asked about flowers. These plants are not a major food source for butterflies.

Brugmansia X candida Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Pachystachys lutea ‘Grand Marnier’ Chinese Hibiscus Lollipop Plant Angels Trumpet Origin unknown (probably Tropical Asia) Peru Hybrid – Garden Origin

Allamanda cathartica Jasminum sambac Golden Trumpet Gardenia, Cape Jasmine Arabian Jasmine Central and South America China, Taiwan, Japan Origin unknown (probably Tropical Asia)

Anthurium scherzeranum Bougainvillea, Paper Flower Frangipani, Plumeria Flamingo Flower Brazil Mexico to Panama Costa Rica, Guatemala

Ethnobotanicals Ethnobotany: The study of how people use plants. These are plants many of us use in our everyday lives.

Coffea arabica Cocoa Tree Vanilla planifolia Coffee Central America Vanilla East Africa Seeds are fermented, roasted, and Florida, West Indies, Central and South America Seeds are removed from berries ground into a powder (cocoa) that then roasted, ground, and brewed is an ingredient in chocolate. Vanilla is extracted from pod-like to make an aromatic drink. seed capsules harvested from this vining orchid. This guide and other interpretive materials have been made possible by a generous grant from the Pendleton and Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable Foundation.