Autumn 2019 butterflies and bees. (The Black Horehound is not very closely related to the White Horehound, Marrubium vulgare, which is not straggly and has downy leaves.)
advice on providing butterfly nectarers. So, when clearing through rough ground by cutting, scything, or other means do look carefully and let this valuable plant thrive.
Why I write this is, though someone will no doubt prove me wrong, I cannot recall ever seeing the Black Horehound mentioned in articles or
I am indebted to Valerie for the accompanying picture. Black Horehound by Valerie Soper
Breeding Brimstones Jane Henderson
The Brimstone, such a welcome sight on a Spring day, is one of my favourite butterflies. To help increase the Brimstone population I decided that putting some bushes of its larval host plant into the garden would be a good idea, as well as an interesting project, and in 2017 we bought five Alder Buckthorn saplings.
netting over. This covered two adjacent bushes and was held down around the base with tent pegs. I had read that the eggs should take about two weeks to hatch, but in reality, it was five weeks later that I counted twelve small, green larvae. As the days passed more and more caterpillars were emerging and I netted one more bush for their protection. About three weeks after seeing the first few caterpillars, over seventy were counted. While the larvae ate and ate, the leaves on the young bushes became fewer and fewer until they were almost defoliated. Realising that things were looking desperate and that the caterpillars might not have enough food to get them through to the pupal stage, I contacted Jillian (Suffolk Branch Membership Secretary) who kindly agreed to take some to put on her own
The saplings produced no leaves in time to attract any passing females, being planted late in the spring and the following year no Brimstones took any interest in them. However, towards the end of April 2019 we were delighted to see two females laying eggs on the bushes (photo page 2) and after a week it seemed like a good precaution to protect the eggs from birds. We constructed an arched frame from smooth, flexible willow branches pushed into the ground, tied together with string and put 1/2” mesh plastic garden15
