Gulf fritillary

Brilliant orange above and, below, spangled with elongated silver spots, the gulf fritillary is one of the most beautiful butterflies of the South. Despite its name it is a longwing, not a true fritillary.

It is a butterfly of warm, open country, gardens, fields, and roadsides across the southern United States, on the wing nearly year-round in the far South.

Caterpillars feed only on passionflowers. Bright orange with black spines, they take up the vine compounds and become distasteful to predators.

Plant a native passionflower for the caterpillars and nectar-rich flowers for the adults, and this dazzling longwing will find them. The plants below carry documented gulf fritillary records.