Let Your Discovery Take Flight

One of the museum’s most popular and peaceful permanent exhibits is the Karen Wertheimer Butterfly Habitat situated on the edge of its Honey Horn campus just before you reach the piers. Whether you visit in a season teeming with life and color or a quiet season of hibernation and replenishment, there’s always an opportunity to learn and create new experiences – not just at the museum but with knowledge you can take home and bring to life in your own backyard or neighborhood gardens.

Coastal Discovery’s Natural History Curator and Manager Carlos Chacon created the idea of the butterfly habitat nestled in the center of the nature walk that runs behind the museum’s Discovery House. Here you can get up close to the lifecycle process, see evidence of incredible changes and perseverance, and seek out the kind of inspiration and education one can only encounter in person.

Learn hands-on to identify butterfly types, and the species of plants that determine what kind of butterflies you will attract and why. The habitat itself is home to 13 different kinds of plants, intentionally curated as nectar and host plants for the varieties of butterflies that are native to the area. You’ll discover the growth process from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly – a great becoming.

Go deeper in understanding and response as you learn how to house and support this gentle but inimitable contributor to our Lowcountry environment. Interact year round with basic resources like information panels set throughout the habitat and grounds and the garden itself, or take part in educational opportunities like workshops, talks, tours, and more. Guided tours of the butterfly enclosure are offered during peak butterfly season from May through October.