Butterflies are Blooming

It is “Butterflies are Blooming” time at Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, MI. This is the annual butterfly garden exhibit that lasts from March 1 to April 30. This is the largest temporary tropical butterfly exhibition in the United States. Thousands of butterflies, over 60 species, are on display.

Please note that the identifications of the butterflies here was primarily from Google Lens. The field guide provided by Meijer Gardens shows examples of many of the butterflies with wings spread wide open. Since the underside of the wings often look quite different, and there is variability from one butterfly to the next, this guide provided a limited resource for identification. If you know a better ID for any of them, please let me know and I will update the post.

My favorite butterfly in the exhibit was the Common Morpho, shown above. When they were flying they were a brilliant blue. When they landed somewhere, they closed up their wings showing only the intricate pattern above. I was only able to capture one semi-decent photo of the Common Morpho just as it was about to land, shown below.

I found that it was much harder to photograph these butterflies than in our home garden. These are just a few of the thousands of butterflies constantly in flight around us. It was a spectacular site. We hadn’t been to the exhibit in a few years, but it is well worth the trip.

Mark