If you want to attract Skipper butterflies to your garden, check out the list of host and nectar plants below for each pf the forty-seven species that visit Tennessee!

 

Silver-spotted Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Various species in the Fabaceae family
    • Black Locust
    • Honey Locust
    • False Indigo
    • Thicket Bean
    • Hog Peanut
    • Milk Vetch
    • Groundnut

Nectar Plants:

  • Common Milkweed
  • Red Clover
  • Buttonbush
  • Blazing Star
  • Thistles
  • Fleabane
  • Mountain Mint
  • Ironweed
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Mistflower
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Woodland Phlox
  • Sweet William
  • Zinnia

 

Long-tailed Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Various species in the Fabaceae family
    • Hog Peanut
    • Blue Peas
    • Butterfly Pea
    • Hairy Milk Pea
    • Soybean
    • Spurred Butterfly Pea
    • Thicket Bean
  • Beggar’s Tick

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Shepherd’s Needle
  • Pentas
  • Goldenrod
  • Asters
  • Garden Pansy
  • Zinnia
  • Blue Lobelia
  • Wisterias

 

Golden Banded-Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Hog Peanut
  • Thicket Bean
  • Kudzu
  • Butterfly Pea

Nectar Plants:

  • Hollyhock
  • Common Milkweed
  • Thistle
  • Violet Wood Sorrel
  • Blackberry

 

Hoary Edge

Host Plants:

  • Beggar’s Tick
  • False Indigo
  • Bush Clover
  • Butterfly Pea
  • Hairy Small-Leaf
  • Nuttall’s Tick Trefoils
  • Hairy Lespedeza

Nectar Plants:

  • Common Milkweed
  • Dogbane
  • Buttonbush
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Thistle
  • Wild Petunia
  • Blazing Star
  • Red Clover
  • White Clover
  • Ironweed
  • Giant Hyssop
  • Joe-Pye Weed

 

Southern Cloudywing

Host Plants:

  • Various plants in the Fabaceae family
    • Wild Bean
    • Bush Clover
    • Fuzzy Bean
    • Milk Vetch
    • Thicket Bean
    • Butterfly Pea
    • Spurred Butterfly Pea
    • Groundnut
    • Hog Peanut
    • Hairy Small-Leaf
  • Red Clover
  • Beggar’s Tick

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Common Milkweed
  • Thistles
  • Blazing Star
  • White Crownbeard
  • Crown Vetch

 

Northern Cloudywing

Host Plants:

  • Various plants in the Fabaceae family
    • Bush Clover
    • Lotus
    • Hog Peanut
    • Groundnut
    • Spurred Butterfly Pea
    • Milk Vetch
    • Hairy Lespedezas
  • Red Clover
  • White Clover
  • Beggar’s Tick

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Common Milkweed
  • Thistles
  • Hoary Vervain
  • Red Clover
  • Whorled Coreopsis
  • Sweet William
  • Fleabane
  • Downy Wood Mint

 

Confused Cloudywing

Host Plants:

  • Various plants in the Fabaceae family
    • Bush Clover
    • Tick Trefoil
    • Lespedeza

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Zinnia
  • Red Clover

 

Hayhurt’s Scallopwing

Host Plants:

  • Lambs Quarters
  • Chaff Flower

Nectar Plants:

  • Marigold
  • Knotweed
  • Spearmint
  • Wild Marjoram
  • Cucumber
  • Dogbane
  • White Sweet Clover
  • White Clover

 

Dreamy Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Willows
  • Aspens
  • Poplars
  • Birch

Nectar Plants:

  • Blueberry
  • Wild Strawberry
  • Blackberry
  • Labrador Tea
  • Dogbane
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Winter Cress
  • Purple Vetch
  • Lupine

 

Sleepy Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Scrub Oak
  • Black Oak
  • Bur Oak
  • American Chestnut

Nectar Plants:

  • Blueberry
  • Blackberry
  • Wild Azalea
  • Dandelion
  • Downy Phlox
  • Eastern Redbud
  • Hoary Puccoon

 

Juvenal’s Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Shrub Oak
  • White Oak
  • Black Oak
  • Northern Red Oak
  • Chestnut Oak
  • Post Oak
  • Blackjack Oak
  • Water Oak

Nectar Plants:

  • Winter Cress
  • Dandelion
  • Wild Plum
  • Wisteria
  • Blueberry
  • Carolina Vetch
  • Lilac
  • Fleabane
  • Eastern Redbud
  • Purple Phacelia
  • Grape Hyacinth

 

Horace’s Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Red Oak
  • White Oak
  • Willow Oak
  • Northern Red Oak
  • Southern Red Oak
  • Scrub Oak
  • Willow Oak
  • Post Oak
  • Water Oak
  • Blackjack Oak

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Buttonbush
  • Sneezeweed
  • Goldenrod
  • Peppermint
  • Boneset
  • Winter Cress
  • Zinnia
  • Blazing Star
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Tennessee Coneflower
  • Fleabane
  • Mistflower
  • Dandelion
  • Prickly Mallow
  • White Clover
  • Red Clover
  • Mountain Mint

 

Mottled Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • New Jersey Tea

Nectar Plants:

  • Hoary Vervain
  • Gromwell
  • Bush Houstonia
  • New Jersey Tea

 

Zarucco Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Black Locust
  • Hairy Bush Clover
  • Sesbania Longifolia
  • Butterfly Pea
  • Spurred Butterfly Pea
  • Hairy Milk Pea
  • American Wisteria
  • White Wild Indigo

Nectar Plants:

  • Shepard’s Needle
  • American Wisteria
  • White Wild Indigo
  • Various flowers in the Asteraceae Family

 

Funereal Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Alfalfa
  • Bigpod Sesbania
  • Vetch
  • Bur Clover
  • Deerweed
  • Desert Ironwood

Nectar Plants:

  • Purpletop Vervain
  • Prickly Mallow
  • Bigpod Sesbania
  • Various flowers in the Asteraceae Family

 

Wild Indigo Duskywing

Host Plants:

  • Blue Wild Indigo
  • Yellow Wild Indigo
  • White Wild Indigo
  • Cream Wild Indigo
  • Lupine
  • False Lupine
  • Crown Vetch
  • Hairy Bush Pea
  • Arrowhead Rattlebox

Nectar Plants:

  • Blackberry
  • White Sweet Clover
  • Crimson Clover
  • Dogbane
  • Lobelia
  • Thistle
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Mexican Sunflower
  • Stone Crop
  • Fleabane
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Blue Wild Indigo

 

Common Checkered-Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Various plants in the Mallow (Malvaceae) family
    • Hollyhock
    • Globemallows
    • Mallows
    • Poppy Mallows
    • Crested Anoda
    • Velvetleaf Mallow
    • High Mallow
    • Prickly Mallow

Nectar Plants:

  • Shepherd’s Needle
  • Fleabane
  • Asters
  • Red Clover
  • Knapweed
  • Beggar’s Tick
  • Mistflower
  • Prickly Mallow
  • Wingstem
  • Globe Amaranth

 

Common Sootywing

Host Plants:

  • Lambs Quarters
  • Amaranths
  • Cockscomb
  • Mexican Tea
  • Pitseed Goosefoot

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Marjoram
  • Oxalis
  • White Clover
  • Common Milkweed
  • Peppermint
  • Cucumber
  • Melon
  • Fogfruit

 

Swarthy Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Little Bluestem

Nectar Plants:

  • Red Clover
  • Tick Trefoil
  • Purple Vetch
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Peppermint
  • Blue Sage
  • Everlasting Pea
  • Wild Petunia
  • Blazing Star

 

Clouded Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Silver Plume Grass
  • Witch Grass
  • Johnson Grass
  • Barnyard Grass
  • St. Augustine Grass
  • Wooly Beard Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Nectar from various flowers
  • Shepherd’s Needle
  • Vervain
  • Buttonbush
  • Lantana
  • Zinnia
  • Mistflower
  • Red Clover
  • Thistle
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Garden Petunia
  • White Turtlehead
  • Phlox
  • Everlasting Pea
  • Wild Petunia
  • Blazing Star

 

Least Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Blue Grass
  • Rice Cut Grass
  • Bristle Grass
  • Panic Grass
  • Marsh Millet Grass
  • Common Reed Grass
  • Cogon Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Wood Sorrel
  • Swamp Verbena
  • Chickory
  • White Clover
  • Pickerelweed
  • Smartweed
  • Arrowhead

 

Fiery Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Bermuda Grass
  • Crabgrass
  • St. Augustine Grass
  • Kentucky Blue Grass
  • Bent Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Asters
  • Sneezeweed
  • Ironweed
  • Thistles
  • Knapweed
  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Buttonbush
  • Zinnia
  • Mistflower
  • Lantana
  • Fogfruit
  • Blue Sage
  • White Turtlehead
  • Giant Hyssop
  • Marigold

 

Leonard’s Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Little Bluestem Grass
  • Blue Grama Grass
  • Bent Grass
  • Panic Grass
  • Switch Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Blazing Star
  • Asters
  • Thistles

 

Cobweb Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Little Bluestem Grass
  • Big Bluestem Grass
  • Broomsedge Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Wild Strawberry
  • Blackberry
  • Winter Cress
  • Red Clover
  • Vervain
  • Carolina Larkspur
  • Wild Hyacinth
  • Hoary Puccoon

 

Peck’s Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Rice Cut Grass
  • Kentucky Blue Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Red Clover
  • Common Milkweed
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Purple Vetch
  • Ironweed
  • Thistles
  • Dogbane
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Blue Vervain
  • Bee Balm
  • Mistflower
  • Purple Coneflower

 

Tawny-edged Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Panic Grass
  • Slender Crabgrass
  • Kentucky Blue Grass
  • Manna Grass
  • Needleleaf Rosette Grass
  • Centipede Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Red Clover
  • Alfalfa
  • Dogbane
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Tennessee Coneflower
  • Fall Phlox
  • Thistles
  • Chicory
  • Blazing Star
  • Whorled Milkweed
  • Bee Balm
  • White Clover
  • Lantana
  • Meadow Sage

 

Crossline Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Purpletop Tridens Grass
  • Melic Manna Grass
  • Blue Grass
  • Little Bluestem Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Red Clover
  • Purple Vetch
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Dogbane
  • Thistle
  • Blazing Star
  • Mistflower
  • Common Milkweed
  • Ironweed
  • Tennessee Coneflower
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Lobelia

 

Southern Broken-Dash

Host Plants:

  • St. Augustine Grass
  • Paspalum Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Pickerelweed
  • White Clover
  • Vetch
  • Bush Clover
  • Thistle

 

Northern Broken-Dash Host

Host Plants:

  • Panic Grass
  • Deertongue Grass
  • Switch Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Red Clover
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Thistle
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • White Clover

 

Little Glassywing

Host Plants:

  • Purpletop Tridens Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Peppermint
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Common Milkweed
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Mountain Mint
  • Buttonbush
  • Blazing Star
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Wild Indigo
  • Thistle

 

Sachem

Host Plants:

  • Bermuda Grass
  • Crabgrass
  • Goosegrass
  • St. Augustine Grass
  • Red Fescue Grass
  • Kentucky Blue Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Dogbane
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Common Milkweed
  • Buttonbush
  • Peppermint
  • Red Clover
  • Thistles
  • Asters
  • Tickseed Sunflower
  • Zinnia
  • Phlox
  • Mistflower
  • Ironweed
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Thistle
  • Blazing Star
  • Goldenrod
  • Lantana
  • Cosmos
  • Blue Sage
  • Mexican Sunflower
  • Blanket Flower

 

Delaware Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Big Bluestem Grass
  • Switch Grass
  • Wooly Beard Grass
  • Broomsedge Grass
  • Redtop Panic Grass
  • Giant Cane Grass
  • Maiden Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Fleabane
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Common Milkweed
  • Mountain Mint
  • Buttonbush
  • Thistles
  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Pickerelweed
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Phlox
  • Zinnia

 

Hobomok Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Panic Grass
  • Blue Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Common Milkweed
  • Blackberry
  • Viper’s Bugloss
  • Henbit

 

Zabulon Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Purpletop Tridens Grass
  • Wheatgrass
  • Lovegrass
  • Bentgrass
  • Orchardgrass
  • Blue Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Red Clover
  • Purple Vetch
  • Common Milkweed
  • Buttonbush
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Thistles
  • Blackberry
  • Everlasting Pea
  • Blackberry
  • Fleabane
  • Bee Balm
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Blazing Star
  • Garden Pansy
  • Wild Petunia
  • Verbena
  • Lobelia

 

Yehl Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Cane (Arundinaria species)

Nectar Plants:

  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Pickerelweed
  • Thistle
  • Purple Coneflower

 

Broad-winged Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Common Reed
  • Giant Cut Grass
  • Hairy Sedge
  • Northwest Territory Sedge
  • Shoreline Sedge

Nectar Plants:

  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Dogbane
  • Blue Vervain
  • Thistles
  • Fleabane
  • Buttonbush
  • Red Clover
  • Fogfruit
  • Pickerelweed

 

Dion Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Woolgrass
  • Hairy Sedge
  • Shoreline Sedge

Nectar Plants:

  • Buttonbush
  • Sneezeweed
  • Pickerelweed
  • Bee Balm
  • Swamp Milkweed

 

Dun Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Shortbeak Sedge
  • Graceful Sedge
  • Hop Sedge
  • Hairy Sedge

Nectar Plants:

  • Common Milkweed
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Purple Vetch
  • Dogbane
  • Peppermint
  • New Jersey Tea
  • Ironweed
  • Joe-Pye Weed
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Lobelia

 

Dusted Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Little Bluestem Grass
  • Big Bluestem Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Wild Strawberry
  • Wild Blackberry
  • Wild Hyacinth
  • Phlox
  • Vervain
  • Red Clover
  • White Clover
  • Lyreleaf Sage

 

Pepper and Salt Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Indian Grass
  • Indian Wood Oats Grass
  • Kentucky Blue Grass
  • River Oat Grass
  • Fowl Manna Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Blackberry
  • Viburnum
  • Wild Geranium
  • Sunnybells
  • Miami Mist

 

Lace-winged Roadside- Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Giant Cane
  • Switch Cane

Nectar Plants:

  • Blackberry
  • White Clover
  • Sweet Pepperbush
  • Dogbane
  • Elephant’s Foot
  • Bee Balm
  • Dandelion
  • Ironweed
  • Purple Coneflower
  • Tall Bellflower

 

Common Roadside- Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Kentucky Blue Grass
  • Bent Grass
  • Bermuda Grass
  • Indian Wood Oats Grass
  • River Oat Grass
  • Common Oat Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Verbena
  • Selfheal
  • White Clover
  • Primrose-leaved Violet

 

Bell’s Roadside-Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Indian Wood Oats Grass
  • River Oat Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Zinnia
  • Red Clover
  • Hoary Puccoon
  • Abelia

 

Eufala Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Johnsons Grass
  • Bermuda Grass
  • Barnyard Grass
  • Vasey’s Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Alfalfa
  • Aster
  • Sage

 

Brazilian Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Various plants in the Canna (Marantaceae) family

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Thistles

 

Ocola Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Sugarcane Grass
  • Rice Cut Grass
  • Torpedo Grass

Nectar Plants:

  • Lantana
  • Shepherd’s Needle
  • Swamp Milkweed
  • Buttonbush
  • Pickerelweed
  • Aster
  • Mistflower
  • Ironweed
  • Sage
  • Joe-Pye Weed

 

Yucca Giant-Skipper

Host Plants:

  • Spanish Bayonet
  • Adam’s Needle

Nectar Plants:

  • The Yucca Giant-Skippers do not nectar but live off stored fats in their body. The males do take moisture from mud.