Host plants for the northern pearly-eye
The garden plants whose leaves northern pearly-eye caterpillars eat, and a bed the planner designed around them.
The northern pearly-eye (Lethe anthedon) is a butterfly. Like every butterfly and moth, it can lay its eggs only on the plants its caterpillars can eat, its host plants. A garden with nectar flowers feeds the adults as they pass; a garden with host plants is where the next generation is raised.
These three garden plants are recorded by NC State as hosts for its caterpillars. Expect chewed leaves: that is the point. Do not spray, and leave fallen leaves under the plants in winter, where many caterpillars and pupae spend it.
3 plants: 3 grasses.
The host plants
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Northern sea oats
3½ ft · late July to mid September
Flat, dangling seed heads, like flattened oats, hang from arching stems and turn from green to bronze.
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Bottlebrush grass
3 ft · late June to late August
Open, bristly seed heads like bottle brushes stand above the leaves in summer.
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Northern sea oats 'River Mist'
2½ ft · late July to mid September
Bamboo-like leaves boldly striped in white and green, with the same dangling, flat, oat-like seed heads as the species.
A bed for the northern pearly-eye
The planner designed this 16 × 8 ft (4.9 × 2.4 m) bed for zone 6 and part sun when this page was made, keeping bottlebrush grass, northern sea oats and northern sea oats 'River Mist' on it.
The plants
- 1 Bottlebrush grass × 6, green
- 2 Northern sea oats × 8, tan
- 3 Northern sea oats 'River Mist' × 6, green
- 4 Green-and-gold × 13, yellow
- 5 Stemless gentian × 30, blue
- 6 Royal fern × 1, green leaves
- 7 Swamp milkweed × 3, pink
- 8 Double snowdrop × 12, white
Planned as a naturalistic planting: low grasses and groundcovers, the matrix, make up 79% of the planted ground. The scheme leans cool (blue and pink) and uses yellow for warmth, with green, tan and white to calm things between them. Something is in flower for 28 weeks between early February and mid September, with a pause of 5 weeks from late March.
The planner's own design check: 13 Excellent, 2 Good, 2 Satisfactory. It flags one thing to watch: Northern sea oats spreads aggressively. Each plant's details say more.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
All 3 plants
Middle of a bed 2
- Bottlebrush grass 3 ft · late June to late August
- Northern sea oats 'River Mist' 2½ ft · late July to mid September
Back of a bed 1
- Northern sea oats 3½ ft · late July to mid September