This is the fourth entry from my draft manuscript, working title: Spring in the Cottage Garden. You can read the first instalment by tapping below:
My foray into ’butterfly gardening’ started when I saw my very first kahukowhai. It was spring, and there was an area of our garden that had been burnt in an accidental fire. As the ground was bare, weeds started to grow. One of these weeds was the annual European (i.e. introduced) stinging nettle. I’d been meaning to get rid of it, but the gardening gloves I had were too thin and the nettle stung through the fabric. It was above this patch of stinging nettle that I saw this yellow-patched butterfly hovering, and after it flew away I immediately hopped online to figure out what it was.
I learned that it was a type of admiral butterfly of which there are two species native to Aotearoa. The kahukowhai (which is what I saw, and has yellow spots on its wings: Vanessa itea) and the kahukura (with red spots on…
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