Spicebush swallowtails appreciate basketflowers in bloom on July 21, 2011, at WPWP, where sassafras is the host plant in the absence of a big population of spice bushes: Save the sassafras but sacrifice a root now and then to grind into gumbo file!

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE. Click on enlargement for closer view of spicebush swallowtail butterfly on American basketflower on July 21, 2011.
For information about the spicebush swallowtail and its caterpillar, please see this link.
For Hank Williams and the root of the sassafras, please see Jambalaya, crawfish pie and filet gumbo.

spicebush swallowtails nectar on American basketflower and other native wildflowers

But spicebush swallowtails don't need spice bush host plants if you have plenty of sassafras trees

So, being from Louisiana, I can't imagine anything better than file gumbo and spicebush swallowtails, both dependent on the sassafras bush or tree. At WPWP, they become 'trees' in only a few years.

t: gumbo file