Source of Nectar: ​​Visiting the Admirals with peaceful intentions

The admirals who come to see me come with peaceful intentions.

They don't want to conquer any land, but use all available sources of nectar.

In addition to peacock and cabbage white,

is regularly found at the butterfly bush, which is currently in full bloom – in a rare white color – and envelops my small garden in a very pleasant cloud of fragrance, just as I had imagined when I moved in in winter.

However, this ornamental shrub from China is controversial:

is an invasive neophyte and garden refugee, which is not only spreading where Central Europe is fallow anyway.

Sonya Kastilan

Editor in the "Science" department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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These exotic species are viewed very critically in Lorraine, they would be only too happy to drive them out of near-natural river meadows in Austria, and Switzerland has them on a black list, while people in Germany are comparatively relaxed.

So far, no negative effects on the flora and fauna have become known, writes the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation on its website under the heading Neobiota.

Although "dominant stocks" could be impaired by

, and "three million seeds per bush" sounds really threatening, but as the first colonizers of substrates hostile to vegetation, such bushes probably improve the growth conditions for other species and initiate a desired succession.