Species Papilio cresphontes - Giant Swallowtail

Check out this excellent article by David Ferguson: http://bugguide.net/node/view/157023

In the past five years, my working-class neighborhood in Baltimore City has increasingly become home to a considerable number of hispanic families from various countries.

Like all newly settled immigrants, these new arrivals have brought culturally significant plants with them. The Ruta graveolens being grown by the Honduran-American family next door provides a case in point.

As a gardener with an Appalachian heritage, I was not familiar with this plant until my neighbors moved in. Now when I see it growing in a yard, it is a sure sign that a latino family resides therein.

Last year, I bought two plants for my back garden when I learned that it can be a host plant for two Papilio species. Of particular interest to my butterfly gardening activities was learning that the larvae of the Giant Swallowtail can grow on the introduced rue. [All other hostplants are too big for this space.]

Although I have never observed the Giant Swallowtail in my local park, I want[ed] to be ready for its arrival in my garden if it ever shows up. And, it should, right?

Afterall, the current trend favors a stronger latino presence in Baltimore and my neighborhood as more move in... so in the short term, the same trend favors that the numbers of Rue plants will increase, as well.

The question is: Will reports of Giant Swallowtail sightings increase in urban and suburban areas of the U.S. where hispanic people settle?

It seems that we are in the midst of a culturally-significant plant species introduction process that should be monitored so we can learn more about how it happens. If we do, we may gain a better understanding of how this process works which may us reconstruct how other culturally significant plants such as the dandelion and garlic mustard got started on this continent?!