The Beautiful Reason You Should Plant Milkweed Tom Oder - Mother Nature Network
go to original April 23, 2014

Growing Milkweed for Monarch Butterflies (Gardenerd)

Want to do your part to help reverse the dramatic decline in monarch butterflies? Now’s your chance: Plant milkweed.
 
Monarchs are dependent on milkweed, especially milkweeds in the genus Asclepias. Milkweed is the only plant on which monarchs will lay their eggs and on which monarch caterpillars will feed.
 
By starting milkweed from seed indoors or buying nursery seedlings for your early spring plantings, you can create "Monarch Waystations." Monarch Watch, an educational outreach program based at the University of Kansas that engages citizen scientists in large-scale research projects, believes Monarch Waystations are critical to helping monarch butterflies survive what is one of the most fascinating migrations in the natural world.
 
The spring migration begins in mid-March and extends from the monarch’s winter home in central Mexico as far as 2,500 miles north to breeding grounds in the eastern United States and Canada. The butterflies, which cannot survive freezing temperatures, return to the high-elevation Mexican forests in the fall.

For more detailed information about how to grow milkweed or to learn more about the plight of monarchs, visit MonarchWatch.org.

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