|
How about contributing to the monarch butterfly
survival fund? It’s easy: plant a milkweed today.
To grow our native milkweeds, you need at least
half-day sun. Also, many varieties prefer their
roots a bit damp. What's in it for you? Dramatic
flowers, interesting foliage, great seedpods, and
nectar-seeking butterflies. If you're really lucky,
you'll also be delighted by holes in the leaves and
ragged edges, the sure-fire sign of baby monarchs.
Look for fat caterpillars resembling tiny, horned
tigers.
|
| |
 |
| Picture: Common milkweed in part-shade in
my mother’s garden. The first plant probably came from a
wind-borne seed but in the garden, it spreads by underground
runners. I half-heartedly tried to pull it up once or twice
but it wanted to stay, so I’ve been leaving it alone. No
bugs yet but perhaps we’ll get lucky this year. Design-wise,
I think the height, shape, and foliage make it a useful
contrast plant. |
| |
|
The curious thing about milkweed is not that
monarchs are crazy about it and won't eat anything
else; it's that practically no one else can stand
it.
So, if someone's munching on your milkweed,
you can be pretty certain that you've hit
the monarch jackpot. HOwever, according to
The Monday Garden reader, and
awesome prairie planter and photographer,
M.J. Hatfield, you might also get
milkweed tussock moth larvae and
milkweed bugs, (pop-up pictures courtesy
of MJ Hatfield) which strangely enough have
also adopted a striking orange and black
color scheme – may be the food does it?
Other animals, regardless of species, think
milkweed tastes awful and get sick from
eating it. It is life threatening in large
quantities but tastes so bad that you have
to be starving to eat that much of it.
Native Americans did eat the young
asparagus-like shoots but had to boil them
twice to get out the bad juices.
Technically, the bad juices are said to be
cardiac-active steroids (whatever they are).
In many parts of the Americas, milkweeds are
(very carefully) used for medicinal
purposes. |
| |
|
|
|
Pictures: common milkweed
flower, green seed pod and opened seed pod.
Downtown Stamford CT and the Mill River at Scalzi Park 2004. |
| |
|
Monarchs, as you've probably read, also
taste bad. In fact, so bad that once a bird
has tried one, it will shun the species for
life. And as you've probably also read,
viceroy butterflies look like monarchs to
fool birds into thinking that they taste bad
too. Viceroys, though, get the best of both
worlds: defense against birds and something
tastier to eat. The monarchs, of course, get
the bad taste by storing the yukky
cardiac-active steroids in their bodies.
It is said that there are about 200 native
milkweeds, about 100 of them from North
America, and countless garden hybrids. Most
milkweed nectar will attract humming birds
as well as butterflies. Around where I live,
we have several native varieties. The most
common three are the North American "common"
milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), the
orange butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberose)
which is often seen as a gardener’s hybrid,
and the swamp milkweed (Asclepias
incarnate). We also have two nasty
invader milkweed vines: pale swallowwort (Cynanchum
rossicum a/k/a Vincetoxicum rossicum)
and black swallowwort (Cynanchum louiseae
a/k/a Cynanchum nigrum, Vincetoxicum nigrum). |
| |
|
|
|
Pictures: left: orange
milkweed (Bartlett Arboretum 2004); right: pale swallowwort,
downtown Stamford, 2004. |
| |
|
|
|
Pictures: swamp milkweed
about to bloom and in fall (Bartlett Arboretum 2004). |
| |
|
If you want to foster baby monarchs (a very
good thing, indeed), note that monarchs only
like some milkweeds. Web sites on
butterflies tend to recommend the common
milkweed and the swamp milkweed, both
perennial North American natives. If you
really want to roll out the red carpet,
monarchs' all-time favorites are reported to
be certain tropical milkweed hybrids which
you’d have to grow as annuals. |
| |
 |
| Picture: Common milkweed pod, bursting
with seeds. The Mill River at Scalzi Park Fall 2004 |
| |
| The fluffy milkweed seeds are good for stuffing things
like pillows and floatation devices. The seedpods, which are
silky inside like seashells, look wonderful in the garden
and in dried arrangements. The milkweed stems contain fiber
which can be used like hemp or flax. |
| |
 |
| Picture: young common milkweed plants in
Hoyt Street Alley, May 2005 |
| |
 |
| Picture: Common milkweed spring shoots.
The Mill River at Scalzi Park Spring 2004 |
| |
 |
| Picture: Common milkweed in late summer
(same scene as above) The Mill River at Scalzi Park July
2003 |
| |
 |
| Picture: same as above, mid-summer 2004 |
|
|
|
