Story and photos by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist

Gifts come in many forms. To Texas Master Naturalists it might be a “life” bird, a “first ever” sighting of an uncommon butterfly or a native plant surprise that’s just appeared in the yard.

A butterfly that created quite a stir a couple of years ago at local nature parks was the Isabella’s Heliconian, (Eueides Isabella). While not rare to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, it is considered a periodic immigrant. Its habitat is subtropical woodland edges, scrub and brushy fields. Its general range is Brazil and north to Mexico.

Harlingen’s Hugh Ramsey Nature Park was one of the Valley’s parks where the Isabella Heliconian had been spotted. Social media postings showed the excitement these colorful butterflies caused, especially for those with a handy camera who shared their pictures of the butterflies feasting on blooms of mist flower and white plumbago.

This is an example of one of the reasons Texas Master Naturalists help to preserve the Valley’s native habitat — to keep attracting the wildlife we enjoy seeing, studying and protecting. If there were no nectar plants blooming, there would be no butterflies.

Native plants are the ones that have survived through hundreds of years of incredibly diverse and sometimes harsh and extreme elements — drought, floods, heat, freeze, sun, wind, salt and snow — and occasionally, all in the same year.

Plants that have survived those extremes are hardy and pest and disease resistant, not to mention survivors of a near maintenance-free existence.

Native plants provide food for the wildlife that also is native to the Valley. The more habitat that sustains the critters, the better the chance our critters will continue making the Valley their home. Native plants attract beneficial insects, not just nectar for butterflies and berries for birds. Flowering plants attract bees, wasps, hummingbirds, moths and butterflies that pollinate plants and food crops; birds and lizards eat insects, spiders and bug larvae; other critters feed on birds and lizards and life goes on as designed, up and down the food chain.

Thick shrubs like Berlandier’s fiddlewood (Citharexylum berlandieri) bloom all year, providing nectar for butterflies, and food and shelter for birds. Great canopied trees like Texas ebony (Chloroleucon ebano), brasil (Condalia hookeri) and anacua (Ehretia anacua) provide shelter for critters and nesting sites for birds.

Butterflies will hang around as long as there’s a food source. Fortunately, there’s always something blooming in the Valley. Some plants bloom throughout the year like the wild olive (Cordia boissieri). Common balloon vine (Cardiospermum halicacabum) is a native vine, still blooming in December and decorating fences and trellises. The vine provides nectar for bees and butterflies and seeds that feed Bobwhite quail.

Facebook pages like Rio Grande Valley Butterflies, Native Plants of the Rio Grande Valley and Texas Insects, and Friends of Hugh Ramsey Nature Park help nature enthusiasts learn about the gifts of the natural world of the Rio Grande Valley.

For a list of local native plant growers, visit RGV Plants under the Interesting Links tab at www.rgvctmn.org.