Headline: Popular Florida garden plant revives near-extinct butterfly population
The resurgence of a native Floridian plant, the coontie, has in return revived the fortunes of the native Atala butterfly, which relies on the coontie and related plants to feed its larvae.
This is a good and feel-good story. We are fans of butterflies here at The New Leaf Journal. But this story is refreshing beyond the good news about Florida butterflies and flowers. How often is it that you see a news story about wildlife in Florida that does not involve a very large, carnivorous reptile? Depending on whether you consider iguanas to be “very large,” we did have the story about frozen iguanas falling from trees a few years ago. Let us hope for more Florida wildlife stories about happy butterflies (they should probably avoid some of the small-to-mid-sized carnivorous reptiles, however.)