Blooming Butterflies in Columbia, South Carolina

Newest Outdoor Exhibit at EdVenture Children's Museum

Jun 2, 2009

Embed with butterflies to experience their behaviors and world view.

Blooming Butterflies, the newest exhibit at EdVenture Children’s Museum in Columbia, South Carolina, baptizes visitors with a fantasia of flying flowers seeking nectar-rich nourishment to fuel their flight. The enclosed outdoor garden and bloom room simulate the sun-drenched natural ecosystem of butterflies including food, water, shelter and warmth for all phases of their life cycle.

Visitors will get a glimpse of a wide variety of butterfly behavior by entering and strolling the garden slowly, slyly, and stealthily so as not to startle the main attraction. Butterflies may alight on clothing or sip the salts from sweaty nose or brow.

Brewery for Butterflies

At the brewery of bright flowers onlookers watch butterflies land on a blossom, taste the nectar with their toes, and then uncoil a proboscis to sip the sweet liquid. Plastic pot scrubbers soaked in Gatorade® and placed within a ruffled-edge glass bowl make an attractive butterfly pub.

As in a natural habitat, the plants will change with the season to maintain a succession of nectar-rich blossoms.

Over five months from May to October hundreds of butterflies representing 20 species will take flight in the exhibit. In addition to nectar plants which feed adults, the garden must include host plants. Butterfly species lay their eggs on specific host plants and their caterpillars (larva) recycle the plants into butterflies. For example, the Passionflower is host to the Gulf Fritillary. Achillea is host to the Painted Lady.

Bloom Room

The Bloom Room is a nursery behind glass for observing chrysalis development and watching butterflies emerge and dry their wings. The sheer wonder of metamorphosis can be apprehended, appreciated and applauded.

Butterfly Behaviors

Depending on the time of day, temperature, and season, visitors can expect to observe roosting, basking, nectaring, drumming, courtship dances, mating, egg-laying, fluttering, pumping wings, puddling, fighting for territory, tasting, pollinating, perching, and patrolling among other behaviors. For example, early in the morning butterflies bask on rocks, logs, or foliage to collect heat energy from the sun to power flight muscles.

Before entering the enclosed exhibit, visitors can observe butterfly compound eyes, proboscis, and wing scales under microscopic magnification. Before exiting the exhibit, visitors must shake-off any “hitch-hikers.” Blooming Butterflies will refresh, relax, and remind visitors of reasons to conserve habitats for butterflies and people.

Blooming Butterflies is open seven days a week. Admission to the exhibit is $3.00 per person plus general admission to EdVenture Children's Museum. In order to provide visitors with the best possible experience with the butterflies, group size is limited and timed. Groups and schools must make prior reservations. Cameras and binoculars are permitted.

The copyright of the article Blooming Butterflies in Columbia, South Carolina in Kid-Friendly Travel Destinations is owned by Arlene Marturano. Permission to republish Blooming Butterflies in Columbia, South Carolina in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.