Favourite Nectaring Plants #13

Butterflies' Favourite Nectaring Plants #13
The Coat Buttons (Tridax procumbens)


A Gram Blue feeds on a Coat Buttons flower

In this article on Singapore butterflies' favourite nectaring plants, we take a look at another common 'wildflower' that is considered an unwelcomed weed by landscape and greenery maintenance personnel. This weed can be found mainly in urban areas in any patch of roadside greenery. Where the seeds of this plant is able to find some soil, it sprouts from cracks in concrete footpaths, gaps in modular interlocking clay and concrete pavers, car park lots and crevices in walls and rocks.

Coat Buttons spreading at a roadside grass verge

This perennial weed, often referred to as Coat Buttons (Tridax procumbens) is the bane of any human-managed landscaped settings like parks, gardens, lawns, grassy roadside verges and planting beds. Such weeds like the Coat Buttons become "unsightly when they distract the uniformity and tidiness of the landscape. The unmanaged weed infestation will result in extra costs of maintenance." Ref : "A Guide to Landscape Weed Management by Chin Siew Wai - 2015 : Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology (CUGE)"


Coat Buttons growing from the gaps in between concrete pavers

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson. And just doing a word search on any search engine and you will come across many quotes about weeds and how humans differentiate between a plant and a weed! However, in nature, a plant like the Coat Buttons is a part of the food web that is important to small insects, and in particular, butterflies. The flowers of the Coat Buttons are an essential source of nectar to adult butterflies flying around in search of their daily liquid sustenance.



The thick green leaves of the Coat Buttons plant

Taking a short walk around the housing estate in which I live, it was quite easy to find the Coat Buttons plants. They can be found along footpaths, undeveloped sites that are planted with Cow Grass, at carpark lots, potted plants, grassy roadside verges, children's playgrounds and almost anywhere that the seeds of this plant can take root and grow. In areas where they grow profusely (before the municipal maintenance contractors wipe them out temporarily), one may also notice a number of butterflies feeding on the Coat Button flowers. But as soon as they are removed, they reappear in a matter of weeks - testimony of the tenacity of this unwanted plant! The plant is particularly well-adapted to coarse-textured soils and can stand periods of drought.



Amongst its ethnobotanical uses, the Coat Buttons plant has been used for wound healing and as an anticoagulant, antifungal, and insect repellent. The juice extracted from the leaves is directly applied on wounds. It is used in Ayurvedic medicine for liver disorders, hepatoprotection, gastritis, and heartburn. Extracts from various parts of the plant are also used as treatment for bronchial catarrh, dysentery, diarrhoea, boils, blisters, and minor cuts. The extracts from the leaves, when mixed with other herbs, is even touted to convert grey hair to black naturally!


The stem on which the Coat Buttons flower emerges, growing vertically

This humble weed (or wildflower, as I prefer to call it) is obviously not an intentionally cultivated nectaring plant for butterflies, unlike many of the nectaring plants that have been previously featured in this series. Due to their persistent propensity to reappear even after they are removed, the Coat Buttons is not difficult to find and where they grow, one may also expect to find the random butterfly stopping and feeding on their flowers.

Plant Biodata :
Family : Asteraceae (Compositae)
Genus : Tridax
Species : procumbens
Synonyms : -
Country/Region of Origin : Mexico
English Common Names : Coat Buttons, Tridax Daisy, Mexican Daisy
Other Local Names : Kanching Baju,羽芒菊


A Coat Buttons flower showing the three-toothed ray florets

The Coat Buttons plant's taxonomic name Tridax is derived from the Greek τριδακτυλος (tridaktylos), three-fingered or -toed, referring to the three-toothed ray florets. Procumbens is Latin for ‘falling forwards, lying down, which probably describes how the plant grows in its natural state - with horizontal creeping stems.

The plant is native Tropical Latin America and Mexico, but has spread globally where it is often classified as a 'noxious weed' in the USA and Australia. The plant is a semi-prostrate perennial herb with a slender tap root. The leaves are simple, opposite, toothed and generally sagittate, hairy on both surfaces, bright green above and grey-green below.


A Coat Buttons plant starting its growth from cracks in a footpath. Inset : A young Coat Buttons plant

The young shoots that grow from seeds have leaves that are small and almost circular. As the plant matures, the leaves become deeply indented and arrow-shaped. The rather thick leaves are pimpled and rough to the touch with fine white hairs. The leaves grow rapidly and can spread across a large area if it is not managed, often depriving other plants of nutrients and stifling their growth.






Various shots showing how the Coat Buttons plant spreads.  The young shoots spawn new plantlets that are able to sprout roots and grow further new plants, spreading horizontally in a matter of days

The hirsute creeping stems can reach from to 8-30 inches (20-75 cm) long, generally growing in a procumbent manner, extending horizontally outwards from the main plant. New plants can root at the nodes and spread quickly. The stems which bear the flower heads are more or less ascending, up to 50 cm high, round in cross-section, striate, and sparsely to very hairy.






The flower of the Coat Buttons with close-up shots showing the details of the yellow florets

The flowers of the Coat Buttons are yellow, in solitary heads that are about 2 cm wide, each on a 10-30 cm long stalk. The plant bears daisy-like yellow-centered white or yellow flowers with 4 to 6 three-toothed ray florets, notched on the outer edges. The centre of the flower bears disk florets that are dark yellow and hairy. In Singapore, the Coat Buttons plant flowers all the year round with no dormant periods. Flowers are pollinated by butterflies, moths, stingless bees, small wasps and many other smaller insects.





The fruits of the Coat Buttons with its parasol-like pappus that is able to carry the seeds via wind dispersal over long distances

The fruits are dry, indehiscent and are known as achenes. The brown to black, oblong fruits (2 mm long) are covered in silky hairs and have a 5-6 mm long pappus (a feathery appendage which helps the fruit to disperse by wind). This plant is invasive in part because it produces so many of these achenes, up to 1500 per plant, and each achene can catch the wind in its pappus and be carried some distance.


A Common Tiger feeding on the flower of the Coat Buttons

Over many years of observing butterflies, I have seen many species of butterflies feeding on the flowers of the Coat Buttons. Generally, the Papilionidae (Birdwings and Swallowtails) do not prefer the Coat Buttons flowers whenever there are other nectaring sources available nearby. I have only seen a Common Mormon hover near the flowers but did not stop to feed on the Coat Button Flower. However, large butterflies from the Danainae subfamily, like the Common and Plain Tigers, have been observed to feed on the Coat Button flowers.





Amongst the other species of Nymphalidae family, I have seen the Blue Pansy in particular, feeding on the Coat Button flowers. It is also highly likely that the other Pansy species will also take to the Coat Button flowers. The Tawny Coster, a recent addition to the Singapore butterfly fauna about 11 years ago, also likes the flowers of the Coat Button.






A selection of species from the Pieridae family that feed on the Coat Buttons flowers

Some species of the Pieridae family also feed on the Coat Button flowers. Amongst those that I have had the opportunity to photograph are the Common Grass Yellow, No Brand Grass Yellow, Three Spot Grass Yellow and Striped Albatross. It is also possible that other species of the family will also feed on the Coat Button flowers.



All the three extant Grass Blues in Singapore are frequent visitors to the flowers of the Coat Buttons

Amongst the Lycaenidae, particularly in the urban grass patches, I have regularly observed many Lesser Grass Blue and Pygmy Grass Blue fluttering amongst the flowers of the Coat Buttons. Even as the sun goes down, these small butterflies can still be active and flying amongst the flowers, sometimes stopping and resting on a Coat Button flower head to rest for the night. The remaining Grass Blue found in Singapore, the Pale Grass Blue, also feeds on the flower.






Various Blues also feed on the flowers of the Coat Buttons including the seasonal Two Spotted Line Blue

Other Lycaenidae species like the Common Caerulean, Pea Blue, Cycad Blue, Two Spotted Line Blue and Gram Blue have also been seen feeding on the Coat Button flowers. Other related species are also likely to feed on the flowers, especially those that are common in urban areas where the Coat Button plant grows profusely.




It is rather curious that I have not come across any of the skippers feeding on the Coat Button flower. Could it be perhaps skippers feed on the flowers in the earlier hours of the day? Or that they prefer to feed on other nectaring sources instead? If any readers out there have photographic evidence of any of the Hesperiidae species feeding on the Coat Button flowers, do share your observations. If you have come across other species that feed on the Coat Button flowers, please also share your findings in the comments below.

Text and Photos by Khew SK

Butterflies' Favourite Nectaring Plant #12 : Elephant's Foot

Butterfly of the Month - September 2017

Butterfly of the Month - September 2017
The Forest Grass Yellow (Eurema simulatrix tecmessa)


A Forest Grass Yellow feeding on the flower of the Mile-A-Minute weed

September is upon us already and we are well into the 9th month of 2017. Looking back at the Butterfly of the Month articles from the past few years, one thing evident is that the choking haze from the burning of agricultural land in Indonesia has not hit us for the past 24 months. It looks like the Indonesian government has made good its promise to eliminate this annual polluting scourge that has affected neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore. let's hope that the unsustainable practice of forest-clearing by slash and burn will see the end in the coming years ahead.

On the international scene, an area of concern is North Korea's show of power in the launching of several intercontinental ballistic missiles and also the testing of a Hydrogen bomb. The explosion, which had a purported yield of 250 kilotons would be about 16 times the size of the bomb that the US dropped on Hiroshima in World War II. Such powerful weapons in the hands of the wrong people would have dire consequences for the entire world.

Back home in Singapore, we have the first female President since independence and what would have been an unprecedented event and a special occasion was marred by the fact that the 'elections' had only one eligible candidate. This caused a uproar in the local community and social media was, as usual, debating the whole issue of how the situation came to a rather undemocratic conclusion to the Presidential Elections. Irrespective of which side of the argument you are on, Madam Halimah Yacob will be the 8th President of the Republic of Singapore.

A Forest Grass Yellow feeding on the purple Snakeweed flower

The Hungry Ghost Festival is a Buddhist and Taoist festival set on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, also known as the Ghost Month or 七月 (qi yue). However, 2017 is special in that the year contains a leap month whereby an additional month is added to the calendar, pushing the official Hungry Ghost Festival into the month of September this year, instead of falling in the month of August. Nevertheless, some of the superstitious beliefs during the Hungry Ghost month are to avoid wearing red (because ghosts are apparently attracted to red) and not moving house or getting married!



We now come to our Butterfly of the Month for September 2017 - the Forest Grass Yellow (Eurema simulatrix tecmessa). This is one of six species of the Eurema spp. that are found in Singapore, and is only considered moderately common. It is one of the forest-dependent species that is not often found in urban parks and gardens, unlike its other more urbanite cousins like the Common Grass Yellow or Three Spot Grass Yellow.




The Forest Grass Yellow is one species that has two cell spots on the underside of the forewing cell area. The large, almost cleft reddish-brown apical patch quite easily distinguishes this species from the other related species of Grass Yellows. In addition, on the underside of the hindwing is a sub-costal brownish bar that is quite distinct and also a basal spot in space 7.



The upperside is a lemon yellow with black marginal borders on both the fore and hindwings. Reference literature also indicate that the inner edge of the black border in spaces 1a and 1b slope towards the base of the wings.




One, Two, Three Forest Grass Yellows puddling on damp sandy streambanks

Males of the Forest Grass Yellow are often encountered puddling on damp sandy stream banks in the nature reserves. The females do not puddle but are observed feeding at flowering plants. Females of this species tend to attain rather larger wingspans than the other species in the genus, sometimes reaching up to 50mm from wingtip to wingtip.


A trio of Forest Grass Yellows puddling together

Despite being a relatively common species in the forested areas of Singapore, the Forest Grass Yellow's life history has not been recorded yet. If there are any observers out there who have seen the females of this species ovipositing on its host plant do let us know or better still, if you are able to take a photograph of the host plant, send it to us.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Federick Ho, Khew SK, Koh CH, Loke PF, Jonathan Soong, Tan BJ, Tea Yi Kai and Anthony Wong

Upside Down Butterflies Part 2

Upside Down Butterflies Part 2
Peculiar habits of some Butterfly Species


A Common Awl perches upside down on the underside of a palm

In last week's blog article, we featured an interesting and peculiar habit of some species of butterflies. These butterflies have a propensity of perching under a leaf to hide, sometimes with their wings folded upright, others with their wings opened or flapping slowly. Not all butterflies do this, but only a handful and isolated to a few of the butterfly families found in Singapore.

A White Banded Awl on the underside of a leaf

Their reasons for doing so may be common sense - either taking shelter from the heat of the sun, or pelting rain, or even to hide themselves from would-be predators. Even if this is so, then why only these few species? Why don't all butterflies adopt this behaviour? I doubt if these questions can be definitively answered. This is probably one of a myriad of Mother Nature's mysteries. The upside down behaviour is likely to be an evolutionary process of some of these species, carried in their DNA for generations. Each successive generation adopts the identical habits and seems to know what to do without being 'taught' how to do so.

The Riodinidae found in Singapore do not display the under-leaf habit, despite many species in other parts of the world doing so.

We now take a look at the next family of butterflies, continuing from last week's article - the Riodinidae. This family, known as the "Metalmarks", is represented by only 5 species in Singapore. Across the globe, in South America, many of the magnificent metalmarks are well-known to always perch under a leaf, either with their wings opened flat, or folded upright. However, all the 5 Riodinidae species in Singapore are not known to display any under-leaf habits at all. Most of them are usually seen on the top surfaces of leaves, and has a habit of twisting and turning with half-opened wings.

The Sumatran Sunbeam perches upside down quite regularly when observed in the backmangroves of Singapore

Turning our attention next to the Lycaenidae, which is the largest family of butterflies found in Singapore, we observe that of the 2 members of the sub-family Curetinae, one of them - the Sumatran Sunbeam is known to perch on the undersides of leaves with their wings folded upright. Often, their bright white undersides make them very visible when they hang upside down under a leaf. However, the other related species, the Malayan Sunbeam, rarely displays such behaviour.

The Poritinae do not perch under leaves whilst the Miletinae adopt any position just to feed on the excretions of other insects

The other subfamilies, Miletinae and Poritinae, do not display any upside down habits, preferring to stay on the tops of leaves, or in the case of the Miletinae, they adopt whatever convenient posture needed when feeding on the secretions of mealy bugs or aphids. I have not come across any Polyommatinae (the Blues) that perch on the undersides of leaves either.

Both the Silverlines in Singapore display the under-leaf behaviour occasionally

The family Aphnaeinae is represented by two species - the Club and Long Banded Silverlines in Singapore. I have occasionally seen the Silverlines perched on the underside of a leaf. However, this is not a regular behaviour, although we can count the Silverlines as being one of them displaying this under-leaf habit.

Some of the long-tailed Lycaenidae butterflies sometimes hide upside down under a leaf

In the last sub-family, Theclinae, there are one or two species, particularly amongst the long-tailed ones, that occasionally display the habit of perching under a leaf. However, again, this habit is not predominant but only occurs uncommonly from time to time. There have been times when I encounter an individual under a leaf, but they appear to be foraging for something or feeding. Some of the Rapala spp are known to do so. But infrequent are the occasions when I encounter one that is just perched on the underside of a leaf, doing absolutely nothing.  However, in Malaysia, there are certain species of the genus Dacalana and Neomyrina that are typically found perched in the upside down position. These species are not found in Singapore. 

We now move on to the final family, the Hesperiidae or Skippers. Amongst two of the sub-families Coeliadinae and Pyrginae are many species that consistently displays the under-leaf habit. The sub-family Hesperiinae has no known examples of perching under a leaf. We will now feature the species from the Coeliadinae and Pyrginae that regularly perches in an upside down position.

A Brown Awl perches upside down under a leaf

The first group will be the Awls. These species, belonging to the four genera Badamia, Burara, Bibasis and Hasora, are known to be crepuscular (active during the periods of dawn and dusk) in habit. When encountered, they can often be seen to perch upside down on the undersides of foliage usually in the early morning hours before 8 or 9 am, or during the later hours of the day in the deep forest understorey.

Awlets and Awls all upside down

Amongst these, the Brown Awl, Great Orange Awlet, Orange Awlet, Plain Banded Awl, Common Awl, Yellow Banded Awl, Common Banded Awl and White Banded Awl can regularly be observed to perch on the underside of a leaf in forested areas. A few of them can be active during the later hours of the day, like the Yellow Banded Awl and White Banded Awl, but usually in deep forest and hiding in the shade under a leaf.

These robust-bodied skippers are fast-flying and zip rapidly from perch to perch, sometimes even buzzing close to an observer, before settling on the underside of a leaf to hide. I have not come across the sole member of the sub-family, the Orange Tailed Awl, hiding under a leaf, but it is very likely that it also displays this habit.

The final sub-family is the Pyrginae (commonly referred to as the "Flats"). The species of this sub-family tend to open their wings flat (hence the collective name). However, during certain hours of the day, after they are done feeding on flowers, they will fly rapidly and hide upside down under a leaf - still with their wings opened flat. When behaving like this, it is challenging to photograph them, especially when they are perched on a low leaf.

The Flats are also habitual under-leafers, preferring to perch upside down with their wings spread open

Amongst the Flats that have been frequently seen perched under a leaf with their wings opened flat are White Banded Flat, Fulvous Pied Flat, Hieroglyphic Flat, Common Snow Flat, Large Snow Flat, Ultra Snow Flat, Malayan Snow Flat and Chestnut Angle. Whilst there may not be photos of the other species found in Singapore to show that they perch under a leaf, it is most likely that they do. A quite a few of these Pyrginae are very rare. However, their under-leaf behaviour is limited to certain hours of the day when they are not feeding or sunbathing.

A White Banded Flat clings on to the underside of a leaf in its typical upside down perch

And so we complete our observations on this peculiar habit of perching upside down on the underside of a leaf by some butterfly species. Perhaps some researcher will one day discover the purpose of this unique habit that only certain species of butterflies display. Until then, we can just observe and wonder about this under-leaf behaviour amongst these butterflies.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Khew SK, Koh CH, Loh MY, Loke PF, Billy Oh, Nelson Ong, Jonathan Soong and Horace Tan

Upside Down Butterflies - Part 1