Fantastic, Christie! It looks like a big meadow he's flying in to me!

Based on the extensive white, I'd say he's a male - the pictures I've seen of females show thicker black stripes, thinner white stripes than your butterfly. Of course, those LONG tails show that he's the summer form, didn't overwinter. Since he looks new, there must be pawpaws near you.

You lucky duck you, I'm green with envy! :)

Sherry

Oh my, you sure have a treasure there, Christie! I don't blame you for taking more than 30 pictures of it. I've never seen one but hope to someday. If they love Verbena bonariensis, then I'm glad that I have pretty much of it. Since you have the plants, I guess you know that once you have it you'll always have it. Ha. Mine drew in tons of buckeyes last summer, which I was very happy about, but if I had ZSTs some to it, I'd be ecstatic. Congrats!
Cathy

Luck is a 10 acre Pawpaw farm. I only had to drive 2 hours round trip. We collected eggs, larvae, and gravid females. I have caterpillars in my tent from the females that I collect, let them lay, and then released. I have a 10'x10' tent with nectar and host plants. The offspring will be released back into the wild in our area. Many of our native butterflies have been decimated by past spraying for gypsy moths.

I took these photos of the adults that I raised from the eggs and larvae that we collected.

Here is a link that might be useful: Photos of Zebras that I'm Raising

~~ color me jealous ~~

congratulations!

I've only seen one pawpaw tree in a yard that's nearly a mile from my house but there may be some somewhere in a wooded area close-by that I can't see from the road.
It's so encouraging to me to finally see a Zebra Swallowtail. I was afraid I might be wasting my time planting pawpaw trees.

Sherry - thanks for letting me know it's a male.

Cathy - I'm usually pretty careful about not planting invasive plants but that verbena blooms such a long time and although it reseeds heavily, so far the seedlings aren't showing up in other parts of my yard. The patch gets bigger every year but they don't travel by wind or birds. They just come up thickly under the old plants. I have never deadheaded mine. I don't think I could now. lol

Runmede - How wonderful that you're helping the swallowtails increase, and you ARE very lucky to live so close to a pawpaw farm. I'd love to be able to try different named varieties to see which ones I like. The only ones I've ever tasted had a good flavor but also had a horrible slimy texture like that stuff kids buy in a jar to play with that comes in neon colors and the kids love it because it looks like snot. lol

Pawpaws are very rarely planted as yard trees. They don't transplant well and some people assume that they need to be planted by water. I'd like to report that we had a record hot/dry summer last year and my seedlings survived without any supplemental watering even though they are in an area where they get heavy competition from tree roots. I planted them in the fall of '09, watered them summer 2010 but not in 2011. I didn't intentionally neglect them. I was just so busy watering everything else I never got around to it. They've been eaten back to the ground a couple times so one is about five inches tall and the other is about seven. I stuck a few more seeds in the ground along our tree line early this spring and have one seedling coming up in a two liter bottle on my patio.

Ditto to what you said about pawpaws not needing to be planted by water. I planted one or two of them a long time ago in the bottom of the hollow here, and they promptly died. The native pawpaws in this area grow on the bluffs HIGH above creeks, under dense forests. So I planted some in various locations in mostly shady, well drained sites, and they've all thrived. The one in my garden has some age on it - 10 - 15 years old - and it's about 20 - 25 feet tall. People should plant them in their yards more often - they're not hard to grow, and they're also host to tulip tree beauties. I've never found a TTB on a tulip tree, not even this year, when I've got 3 of them growing in pots in my garden, and I could easily see any cats on them. TTBs also use sassafras and redbay here.

Here's hoping your pawpaws thrive!

Sherry

Christie, Like you, I'm pretty careful about planting invasive plants. Actually, when I saw that the passionvine was getting out of hand, out it came, and that was a chore to get it all killed off! I still have it here but in a big pot. The only other plant that I had like that that even came up in the lawn was the wisteria (you can guess what became of that! lol) I don't usually like when plants spread their seeds so freely like the V. bonariensis does, but because the butterflies can't seem to resist it, I just can't say no to it.

I don't think that people plant paw paw trees around here either. I've often wondered if there are any areas of the country where it's often used as a yard tree. I know that the fruit doesn't last long after being picked, which is why you don't find them in the supermarkets, but you'd think that there'd be some people who would plant them to sell locally. In 2010 my husband and I planted a dozen trees in our back yard that I started in tree pots from seed that I bought from someone on ebay. They've been slow growing and aren't much more than a foot tall now. I'm hoping that someday soon they will really take off because right now they wouldn't feed too many ZSTs. I also planted a dozen or so paw paws in the woods, which is near the creek. I figure if they're known to be along the river a few counties south of me, maybe they'll follow the river to this creek that's right close by us (there's only the road and a small woods between our house and the creek) and find their way to our yard. :) I started out wanting to plant them for just the ZSTs but then the more I read about their flavor, it made me want to taste the fruit too.

Two different times I bought paw paw trees from people online and both times it didn't look like there was much root with the trees and they ended up dying (if they were even living at all when they got here). The man who sold me the seeds later on told me that sometimes people try to sell suckers as regular trees that come up from seed, so they end up dying. That's probably what happened to me. So now the only way I'd ever trust to get paw paw trees (not that I need any more) would be if the trees are potted living plants and not bare root. It was a lot of fun starting them from seed, but I think that I have plenty now, and I hope that I'll get some Zebra Swallowtails here someday too. I'm glad that you and some other people are seeing them in your/their yards. I wish that more people would plant paw paws and maybe the ZSTs would become more common.

Cathy

Less than 2 years ago, Christie was a sad camper who had never seen a ZST. She did not give up and now she has joined the ZST club. Congrats!

Here is a link that might be useful: Finally!!! - 4th post

Thanks for that link! I was able to read that Sandy had seen one so that means it's possible for me to hopefully see one some day!

~Laura

Kcclark - Thanks for linking that thread. Glad to know they will nectar on butterfly bush. Mine is just starting to bloom a little.
When that thread was posted in 2010, I had written "I planted two pawpaw seedlings last fall. Only one made it through the winter and now it's gone".
Both of them had been eaten completely to the ground at the time and when I checked them later that fall, they had both resprouted, which really surprised me since they were first year seedlings no bigger than a toothpick. I would've been thrilled if even one had come back.

My trees surely have a good root system by now even though the tops are short so they should take off and grow fast this year.

What a trip down memory lane! My tree is now pushing 8 feet. And, I haven't had another Zebra Swallowtail sighting since. Sigh. Maybe this will be the magic year. I know they have been seen around here this year already--so here's hoping.

Christie, it is so exciting to get a new butterfly. Pawpaws are really hardy once they take off. And a beautiful specimen tree.

My tree has fruit again. It is self-pollinating and if anyone wants seeds this fall, I'll be glad to share. Laura, this particular pawpaw was from a stand that grew on a farm outside of town. So it's an OK native variety.

Love hearing about sightings of this butterfly. It is truly a beauty. One of it's favorite nectar plants is the Lemon Monarda that grows in the wild.

Sandy

Sandy I would love to have a seed! :-)

~Laura

Will save some for you, Laura.

Sandy

Beautiful butterfly and beautiful patch of Verbena bonariensis!!

Apparently, they have only been sighted twice in Massachusetts, and that was 1923 and 1925. So I don't think I'll see one here! :)

Sandy,

Would you please save some paw paw seeds for me too?

I recently moved to North Central Arkansas from Texas, and I've already spotted a Zebra Swallowtail in my garden 3 times. So exciting!

Thanks

Dana

Will do, Dana. I'll post when the fruits are ripe.

Sandy

Hi Sandy,

I'm just checking in to ask if it still looks like you will have Paw Paw seeds this fall. I would still love to have some if you do!

Thanks,
Dana