Pollinator
Summer azure
Celastrina neglecta
A pale, powder-blue butterfly that drifts through summer gardens.
- Family
- Lycaenidae (gossamer-wings)
- Wingspan
- 0.9 to 1.15 in (2.3 to 2.9 cm)
- Flight season
- Spring to fall (several broods)
- Range
- Eastern and central North America
- Caterpillar food
- Flower buds of shrubs (dogwood, viburnum)
- Conservation
- Secure and widespread
The summer azure is a small, pale sky-blue butterfly, almost white below with fine markings, drifting like a flake of blue through woodland edges and gardens.
It flies in several broods from spring into fall, often at flowers and damp ground.
Caterpillars feed on the flower buds of shrubs and small trees such as dogwood, New Jersey tea, and viburnum.
Plants for the summer azure
11 caterpillar host plants and 38 documented nectar plants. Pick a role, then narrow with the filters below.
47 plants
Nectar
1 of 2 Common yarrow complex Achillea millefolium Nectar
1 of 3 Eastern redbud Cercis canadensis Host
1 of 3 Flowering dogwood Cornus florida Nectar
Chokecherry Prunus virginiana Nectar
1 of 2 Butterfly milkweed Asclepias tuberosa Nectar
Black raspberry Rubus occidentalis Host + Nectar
Red osier dogwood Cornus sericea Nectar
1 of 3 Anise hyssop Agastache foeniculum Nectar
1 of 2 Buttonbush Cephalanthus occidentalis Nectar
1 of 3 Firewheel Gaillardia pulchella Host
1 of 2 Canadian bunchberry Cornus canadensis Nectar
1 of 3 Cutleaf coneflower Rudbeckia laciniata Nectar
1 of 3 False sunflower Heliopsis helianthoides Nectar
1 of 3 Sweet Joe-Pye-weed Eutrochium purpureum Nectar
1 of 2 Common boneset Eupatorium perfoliatum Nectar
1 of 2 New England aster Symphyotrichum novae-angliae Nectar
1 of 2 Blue vervain Verbena hastata Nectar
1 of 2 Sweet Pepperbush Clethra alnifolia Nectar
Virgin's-bower Clematis virginiana Nectar
California buckeye Aesculus californica Nectar
1 of 2 American Cranberry Vaccinium macrocarpon Nectar
Goatsbeard Aruncus dioicus Nectar
1 of 3 Lance-leaved Coreopsis Coreopsis lanceolata Nectar
1 of 2 Yellow trout lily Erythronium americanum Nectar
1 of 2 Allegheny Chinquapin Castanea pumila Nectar
1 of 3 Pearly everlasting Anaphalis margaritacea Nectar
1 of 2 Rattlesnake master Eryngium yuccifolium Host
1 of 2 Blueblossom Ceanothus thyrsiflorus Host
1 of 2 Nannyberry Viburnum lentago Host + Nectar
1 of 2 Southern arrowwood Viburnum dentatum Nectar
1 of 2 Purple-flowered raspberry Rubus odoratus Nectar
1 of 2 False indigo bush Amorpha fruticosa Nectar
Culver's root Veronicastrum virginicum Nectar
1 of 2 Golden Alexanders Zizia aurea Host
1 of 2 Mapleleaf viburnum Viburnum acerifolium Host
1 of 2 Squashberry Viburnum edule Host
Gray dogwood Cornus racemosa Host
1 of 2 Hobblebush Viburnum lantanoides Nectar
1 of 2 Cut-leaved toothwort Cardamine concatenata Nectar
1 of 2 Flat-topped goldenrod Euthamia graminifolia Nectar
1 of 2 Bluehead gilia Gilia capitata Host
1 of 2 Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum rufidulum Nectar
Narrowleaf mountainmint Pycnanthemum tenuifolium Nectar
1 of 2 Hollow Joe-Pye Weed Eutrochium fistulosum Nectar
1 of 2 Virginia mountain mint Pycnanthemum virginianum Nectar
Hoary Mountainmint Pycnanthemum incanum Nectar
1 of 2 False aster Boltonia asteroides
1 of 21 of 31 of 31 of 21 of 31 of 21 of 31 of 21 of 31 of 31 of 31 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 31 of 21 of 21 of 31 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 21 of 2No plants match those filters.
Sources
- Butterflies and Moths of North America ↗
- iNaturalist ↗
- Plant associations from GloBI flower-visit records and NPIN larval-host data. Butterfly photographs via iNaturalist (CC BY).