Deering Estate tallied 297 butterflies in the 2026 NABA Miami Blue Coral Gables survey, the highest count of any participating site. The result reflects years of native habitat work at the 444-acre Palmetto Bay property on Biscayne Bay.
Ana Rojas, Conservation and Research Specialist at Deering Estate, credited the count to deliberate planting of native and Florida-friendly host plants across the grounds.
"We are proud to serve as a butterfly sanctuary in a highly urbanized area," Rojas said in a June 29 article published by Miami Community Newspapers. "By providing native and Florida-friendly plants, we recorded the highest butterfly count, 297, in the 2026 NABA Miami Blue Coral Gables survey, and we will continue providing the best possible habitat."
The estate's Propagation Station and Native Pollinator Nursery, launched in 2023 as part of Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces' Parks for Pollinators Initiative, now holds more than 40 species of native pollinator plants. It functions as a working nursery, educational site, and experimental lab for propagation techniques.
Staff maintain wild lime to attract the Giant Swallowtail and are restoring Marsh's dutchman pipevine, an endemic South Florida vine, for the Polydamas Swallowtail. Both species are commonly spotted on the grounds. In 2022, staff planted 30 torchwood trees and 10 Marsh's dutchman's pipe plants in four locations across the estate.
The torchwood serves a longer-term ambition. The federally endangered Schaus' Swallowtail currently survives only in a few keys within Biscayne National Park and the upper Florida Keys. Rojas and her team hope the torchwood plantings could eventually help create suitable habitat closer to the mainland, though no timeline has been set for the species' potential return.
A 2022 citizen science survey of the estate's main 12 acres recorded more than 42 pollinator species, including butterflies, bees, moths, and birds.
Residents can support the conservation work through the Adopt-a-Pollinator program, which lets participants symbolically adopt a native pollinator. Rojas said in the same Miami Community Newspapers piece that funds go toward increasing native biodiversity and renovating the nursery. Details are available at deeringestate.org.
The estate partners with the NABA Miami Blue Chapter for annual butterfly counts and with the UF/IFAS Master Gardener Program for public conservation workshops on pollinators and Florida-friendly landscaping.
Upcoming at Deering Estate
- Seasonal Butterfly Walk — Fourth Saturday of each month, June through September (the July walk falls on Saturday, July 26; confirm date and time at deeringestate.org). Participants document species including the Ruddy Daggerwing, Dina Yellow, and Atala via iNaturalist.
- Conservation Workshop Series — Schedule and registration at deeringestate.org/events/conservation-workshop-series/
- Bee Workshop — Details at deeringestate.org/events/workshop-2/
