The Karner Blue Butterfly

Each spring, as lupine leaves push through thawing earth,

the first Karner Blues unfold their wings — tiny bursts of sky

against sandy soils and scattered sun.

These are the survivors of winter:

eggs that slept beneath last year’s stems,

waiting for warmth and wild lupine to return.

The Karner’s story is told in two generations.

The first takes flight in May, fading by June;

the second rises in July and dances through August,

brief as breath, fragile as wonder.

For all their beauty, they live by one thread —

the wild lupine they depend on from birth.

Larvae feed on its leaves, sometimes its fruits,

while ants stand guard in a curious alliance.

Sweet droplets from the caterpillar’s skin

draw the ants close, and in return,

their vigilance keeps danger at bay.

When feeding ends, the larvae slip into leaf litter,

shaping chrysalides beneath the fading plants.

Adults soon emerge to sip nectar,

males pausing at moist sand and dung for minerals,

ever in motion, searching for mates

among the blue shadows of lupine fields.

Though some may wander a mile or more,

most remain where they were born —

tiny territories lit by sun and hope.

Their future depends on the open pine savannas,

where lupine thrives and soil still breathes.

Two generations, one delicate bond:

butterfly and lupine,

life renewed each year by patience,

by sunlight, and by the quiet work of spring.

$1 from every product sold goes to the Karner Blue Butterfly Fund to support conservation efforts.