Hi! This is Adriana, the beekeeper from South Mountain Bees.
The nice part of gardening for bees is that you get rewarded with wonderful visitors.
I planted blue lobelia several years ago, and it keeps coming back stronger every year. Unlike weeds, having a butterfly magnet that keeps coming back is a gardener's dream.
We usually get Eastern Tiger Swallowtails like this one.
But I saw this beauty, and it wasn't a Black Swallowtail or a Spicebush Swallowtail, it was an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail dark-phase. You can see the faint tiger stripes here.
Apparently only female Tiger Swallowtails have a dark version, and the rumor is that males prefer the yellow ones, so that's why there are fewer of them. So she's not only beautiful, but also rare.
Here's a dorsal view.
It was a treat to have her enjoy the blue lobelia. I leave you with this short clip of her visit.
