Rockefeller welcomes winged visitors

by TALLEY HENNING BROWN

A corner of campus that has for several years served as a staging area for construction work has been relandscaped — with an eye toward butterflies. Plant Opera­tions, which oversees the university’s landscaping, began the process this spring of transforming the land adjacent to the hospital’s western façade into a haven for butterflies. If the concept proves popular with the lepidopters, results should begin fluttering in over the summer.
The idea to lure butterflies was generated by the university’s Green Task Force, the group responsible for advising the university’s administration on environmentally sustainable initiatives. Working with information and advice from the North American Butterfly Association, Rockefeller’s horticultural consultant Lulu Leibel chose from a list of flowering plants attractive to more than 50 species of butterfly that have been seen in Central Park, including natives that spend their entire life cycles in the park and those that use the park as a rest stop along migratory paths. Rockefeller has hired the landscaping firm Town and Garden to complete the garden’s installation.
Hackberry trees, a main food source for the hackberry emperor caterpillar, wild geranium, orange milkweed and New England aster will be the core species in the garden, and will ensure something is in bloom throughout the fall. An irrigation system will provide ample moisture, which provides additional nutritious minerals —leached from the soil — for the insects.
Campus strollers can expect to cross paths with many varieties of butterfly, including the eastern tiger swallowtail, cabbage white, summer azure, silver-spotted skipper, zabulon skipper and the monarch, the striking orange and black variety famed for its yearly migration path that covers thousands of miles up and down the continent.