If you’ve ever accidentally touched the stems or foliage of stinging nettle, then you know that they give you a nasty nip! Although the sting doesn’t last more than a few hours, it’s enough to make you remember NOT to touch this plant next time! You’ll need gloves if you plan to pull this weed.
Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)
So who on earth could love this plant? Meet the Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta). Nettles are their caterpillars’ only food plant:
Red Admiral butterfly drinking nectar from a sedum flower. Their caterpillars feed on plants in the nettle family, including stinging nettle, wood nettle, false nettle and pellitory. Photo copyright Ellen Sousa.
This beautiful butterfly migrates in the spring from central America and the southern US north to New England and southern Canada, where it breeds near plants in the nettle (Urticacaea) family. When the caterpillars hatch, they shelter in a little fold of nettle leaf, where they feed on the foliage until they begin the transformation into a butterfly.
Red Admiral caterpillar. Photo by Benny Mazur (Benimoto on Flickr)
Stinging nettle grows aggressively in moist soil, so you don’t want it anywhere near your garden beds or next to a walking path where bare legs might brush up against it. Other wild nettles lack the stinging hairs and are easy to pull by hand, thankfully. But leave a patch or two of nettle in an out of the way spot in your garden and keep an eye out for the Red Admiral butterfly. They are still a relatively abundant butterfly across the US and will almost definitely find your backyard habitat. Let’s help keep it that way!
Ellen Sousa gardens, farms, writes and teaches from Turkey Hill Brook Farm, a small horse farm landscaped as a backyard habitat in the Worcester Hills of central Massachusetts.
© 2010 – 2012, Ellen Sousa. All rights reserved. This article is the property of BeautifulWildlifeGarden.com If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us
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How ironic. I saw our first Red Admiral yesterday and went online, curious as to what their host food might be. Then you post this blog today. Were you listening over my shoulder?
~ @SolakNC
hi Tom, our aim is to serve here at Wildlife Garden
So you must have nettles growing somewhere nearby if you saw an adult Red Admiral…
If in the spring, you gather young nettle tops, then chop and fly them in a bit of butter they are quite tasty, sort of nutty … just saying.
Hmm I know they are used to make tea but didn’t know they were edible. hmmmm will have to try that!
How interesting that the cat has bristly looking hairs like it’s host plant…Thank you for letting us know about nettles and this beautiful butterfly. gail
Gail Eichelberger recently posted..Harvesting Clay and Limestone
I also had an Admiral this year and investigated the host plant. I found non-stinging nettles. Do you know if this is also a host plant?
Yes, other members of the nettle family (Urticacaea) such as wood nettle and false nettle are also host plants for the Red Admirals. Incidentally, nettles are also host plants for other beautiful butterflies such as the eastern comma, question mark and tortoiseshell….
scotland december 2011
During the summer a red admiral butterfly came into our lounge then disappeared
Then 4weeks ago it appeared now it flutters about for short periods
Is there anything we should do to help preserve its life
Food. ? Water?
Or just leave alone
Anybody any ideas please?
Thank you for the great story once again. I have been meaning to look up “nettles” what they might be when I was reading about butterfly hosts. I did not connect the name with this plant/weed that we have abundantly in our wooded areas, as I have only recently started learning plant names. Glad that I had not destroyed it and from now on, I will have a whole new attitude and appreciation towards it.