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Painted Lady
(Vanessa cardui)
Caterpillar hosts: More than 100 host plants have been noted; favorites include thistles
(Asteraceae), hollyhock, mallow (Malvaceae),
and various legumes (Fabaceae).
Adult food: The Painted Lady prefers nectar from composites 3-6 feet high, especially thistles;
also aster, cosmos, blazing star, ironweed, and joe-pye weed. Flowers from other families that
are visited include red clover, buttonbush, privet, and milkweeds.
The Painted Lady butterfly can be found almost everywhere, especially in open or disturbed areas
including gardens, old fields and dunes.
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The Hallberg Butterflies
The Hallberg Butterfly Gardens has become an important source of butterfly data in the past
two decades, as well as a repository for an extensive library of media clippings, photos, and books.
Pipevine Swallowtail
Ms. Hallberg has been keeping records of the Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies since 1986. She records the dates of first-seen eggs,
caterpillars, chrysalises, and butterflies. And, since 1992, she has collected daily records of all butterflies seen in the gardens,
compiling a full report at year's end. In her house, she raises caterpillars and chrysalises that would not otherwise survive--hand
feeding the emerging butterflies until they are ready to be released outdoors. This close observation has given her a unique insight
to butterfly behaviors and population trends.
A Young Tiger Swallowtail
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Garden Wildlife
Louise also records detailed accounts of bird and plant life in the Gardens. For many years, migrating swifts nested in her chimney.
Red-tail hawks and Great-horned owls make the huge redwood/eucalyptus windbreak their home. Woodpeckers use a dead poplar as an acorn bank.
Interactions on the land itself, and the recent habitat efforts, are well-documented and directly observable, providing a model for other
gardeners, advocates, and preservationists.
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