East Bay Regional Park District Butterfly Brochures

• Common Butterflies in the East Bay Regional Park District

• The Monarch Butterfly

Gardening for Butterflies

• EBRPD Butterfly Gardening Brochure

• Native Plants that Attract Butterflies - A detailed list of California native plants that attract butterflies. It was compiled by the late Es Anderson, a dedicated Botanic Garden volunteer who managed the annual plant sale for many years. The list was further divided into plants that attract nectar-feeding adult butterflies and those that provide food for caterpillars by Judy Lundy, a lepidopterist and naturalist devoted to sharing her love of nature with schoolchildren. Entries were expanded and updated by Art Shapiro, professor of Evolution and Ecology at the University of California, Davis. Butterflies on the Garden's checklist appear in bold.

Botanic Garden Butterfly Checklist

Compiling a checklist of butterflies seen in the Botanic Garden will always be an ongoing process.  The current list of 42 butterfly species (and a moth) is based on sightings reported on iNaturalist, supplemented by personal observations.  42 species is already a very respectable number for a small location like the Garden.  Four species were added in 2024, one in April 2025, and one in March 2026.  Hopefully, there will be a few more additions over time.

Of the Garden’s 42 species, only 1 is non-native. Cabbage White is believed to have originated in the eastern Mediterranean region, and arrived in the U.S. in the 1860s. It was first reported in North America in 1860 (in Quebec, Canada). There is only one other species that is not native to California: Gulf Fritillary, which was introduced into southern California in the 19th century, from Florida and Texas, where it is common. It seems to have become established in the Bay Area only in the 1950s.

To help identify butterflies you may have seen in the Garden, the Butterfly ID page shows all 42 species at a glance.

Sightings Table

During the butterfly season — roughly April through October — we will try to maintain an updated list of butterflies seen in the Garden during the last 15 days.

The season is off to a phenomenal start this year! Last year, my first visit to the Garden was on March 25th, and I only saw 6 species. On two visits during the first half of April, I only had 5 species each. This year, in contrast, visits on March 8th and 10th yielded 9 species each. A visit on the 15th yielded 11 species. I’m pretty sure the 17 species recorded below are the most I have ever seen in the first half of March.

A new species was added to the Garden checklist on March 11th: Gulf Fritillary. This is not likely to be seen very often in the Garden, since its host plant (Passion Vine) is non-native, and hence not in the Garden.

It looks like the California Tortoiseshell show near the rock wall in the Canyon Section may have come to an end.

Clicking a link in the sightings table will take you to a page with a short description of that butterfly and photographs.  Unless otherwise mentioned, all photographs are by Sarab Seth. For photographs marked with an asterisk (*), there is additional text that you can display by clicking on the photograph (or hovering over it).

For any comments on these butterfly pages (or corrections, suggestions, questions), please email bgarden@ebparks.org.