MIAMI-DADE, Fla. – With dozens of different butterflies, Florida is the country's premier location for butterfly gardens.
This is why there will be a small butterfly garden at Gratigny Plateau Park, 885 NW 117th St., in the Miami-Dade Pinewood neighborhood.
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Medallion Companies from Homestead donated about $24,000 in greenery and flowers that included plants for the butterfly garden, bushes surrounding the pathways and palm trees to provide shade.
"We thought about choosing plants that wouldn't require irrigation and would get through South Florida's dry winter," said Douglas Beard, of Medallion Companies.
The One and Only Local 10 News lead the public-private partnership that made the development of the park, 885 NW 117th St, possible.
Days before the Aug. 6 grand opening of the park, Medallion sent trucks to deliver 21 Montgomery palms, 14 Adonidia palm trees, six pink Tabebuia trees, and 16 Royal palms.
"Some of the plants will be attracting butterflies and humming birds," Beard said.
For the butterfly garden, the trucks also delivered 127 Red Firecracker plants, 121 Ixora Dwarf Pink plants, 31 Dwarf Firebush and 45 blue Plumbago plants.
"Kids are going to be falling off their bikes and stuff," Beard said. "The Green Island ficus is a great buffer plant."
Medallion delivered 983 Green Island ficus bushes, 815 Fakahatchee grass plants, 268 Lantana Gold plants, and 39 Jatropha flowering bushes.
While there are plants that butterflies like to lay their eggs on, there are also plants with flowers filled with nectar that butterflies like to drink from.
There are some plants that serve both functions such as the Turkey Tangle Fogfruit and the Scarlet milkweed. The Frogfruit attracts Phaon Crescent and White Peacock butterflies and the Scarlet milkweed attracts two species of bright orange butterflies -- the Monarch and the Queen and Soldier.
Food source for butterflies: Sweet and acrid-smelling flowers that are orange, yellow, pink, purple and red attract butterflies.
The Spanish needle is a popular source of nectar. Mistflower, Beach Sun Flower, Scorpion-tail, Snow Swaurestern, Turkey Tangle Fogfruit and Blue Porter weed are also nectar plants native to South Florida.
Host plants for larvae and caterpillars: Experts said shrub host plants such as Hercules Club and Lime Pricklyash attract Giant Swallowtail.
The Mexican Senna shrub attracts Sleepy Orange, Cloudless Sulphur and Orange-barred Sulphur butterflies. The Spiny Hackberry attracts Emperors, American Snout and Red-bordered Metalmark.
Source: University of Florida, Florida Native Plant Society, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and North American Butterfly Association