In the countryside the Orange Tip's food plants include Jack-by-the-Hedge (Alliaria petiolata) and Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis) which are both usually April flowers but in late cold winters like 2009/2010 flower well into May. Orange tips visit our garden every Spring, sometimes very early but they flit from flower to flower settling mostly on pale or lilac coloured flowers perhaps suggesting that the colour of the flower is an attractant. The male above rested for no more than 10 seconds on the Blue Hybrid Bluebell but on the pink one stayed for several minutes taking nectar. In the large photos here they also settled on the white Large Bittercress (Cardamine amara) which is similar to Cuckoo Flower (different leaves), always white but about the same height.

LHS: Female Near River Weaver, Cheshire 9th May RHS: Garden Cheshire 4th May 2010

Added on May 10th 2010, updated 9th Dec 14