Fennel & Black Swallowtail Butterflies

For many years I thought the plants and animals in Costa Rica, and back home in the States, were completely different. Then I learned that oak trees grow in the Costa Rican highlands. Gradually I learned that there are many of the same or similar species. I began to see azaleas in Costa Rica, eastern meadowlarks, monarch butterflies, pokeweed, and the list is getting longer and longer.

Photo taken in Costa Rica

Here's a case in point. In Clemson, South Carolina, we grew fennel. One thing we liked about them were the brilliantly colored caterpillars that lived on them and ate the plants. These were the larval stage of the black swallowtail butterflies, of which we had many flying around our yard. Black swallowtails like to lay their eggs on plants in the carrot family, such as carrots and parsnips. But they prefer fennel. We brought fennel seeds with us to Costa Rica, gathered from our garden, and planted them soon after arriving here.

Photo taken in South Carolina

Our fennel plants here are lower and clumpier than in South Carolina. They look almost as if something has been eating the new shoots and keeping them shorter. On close inspection we discovered that, yes, something was eating them -- brightly colored caterpillars, which appear to be almost identical to the ones back in South Carolina. Well, if the caterpillars are here, we figured, then black swallowtail butterflies must also be here. We began paying closer attention to our butterflies, and within a few days, sure enough, we sited one, kind of an old and beat-up specimen, but still, it was a black swallowtail.

Happy gardening!