May Hedgerow

Mustard Garlic and Orange Tip Butterfly

This little butterfly has the most beautiful underwings, like someone in a plain dress with exquisite petticoats. I looked up the colouring, and found out that this is a female orange tip – which doesn’t have an orange tip, apparently. By total chance, a friend called in today and was talking (out of the blue) about consulting a gardener about a plant in her garden that she thought was a weed ; and she was told that orange tips lay their eggs on the underleaf of this plant. When I described it we agreed it must be mustard garlic that was growing in her garden. So in one day I have found out the name of a plant, identified a butterfly, and been told something about its life cycle.

May in May