GreenTeam’s new butterfly garden blossoming in downtown Tiburon

Tiburon Peninsula GreenTeam member Kathy McLeod lifts a leaf at the downtown butterfly garden to show a green chrysalis. During the chrysalis stage of the butterfly life cycle, special cells that were present in the larva are growing rapidly to become the legs, wing, eyes and other parts of the adult butterfly. (Elliot Karlan photo / For The Ark)

Visitors who swing by downtown Tiburon’s new butterfly garden won’t need to watch for long before they spot a monarch or two alighted on a broad leaf, gently and slowly fanning themselves with their own wings, or feeding on the nectar from one of the many milkweed plants.

If they look closer, they might see caterpillars crawling along the mulch or curving themselves into a ball under the shade of a leaf to begin the almost-overnight transition to chrysalis, or a fully-formed chrysalis hosting a yet-to-hatch butterfly.

It’s only been a few months since the Tiburon Peninsula GreenTeam transformed a small patch of land on Tiburon Boulevard into the growing butterfly garden, but the space is already attracting monarchs and a few other species of Lepidoptera — and providing fertile ground for more to hatch.

For the complete story, pick up this week's edition of The Ark on newsstands or SUBSCRIBE NOW for home delivery.