Operation: Gulf Fritillary

[merkity]

When I lived in Pittsburg - i planted a passion vine. the vine went up my deck and hung down from the edge like a curtain - we let it grow and grow - it survived winters just fine. after it got to its super huge size - we noticed the butterflies...it started out small and by the second year we had butterfiles, caterpillars and chrysalis everywhere. They were the orange and black gulf fritillary. you could find them in every stage all over the vine. we even had a birds next in the vine. the plant when we left it behind had gone under the lawn about ten feet, and out the other side - up the tree across the yard -i had no need for netting of any sort, the butterflies simply came back each year. i would look outside about 10ish and mid to late afternoon and see somewhere around 30 butterflies all darting around the vine.