Mornin’, gardeners, butterfly and pollinator lovers, lurkers or anyone who just wants to check out pretty pictures. We’re here every Saturday morning. My hopes today are that all in the path of last week’s vicious winter storm have survived unscathed. Dallas/Ft. Worth were and still are a mess.
Milkweed and monarchs are the subject of this morning’s compendium of my knowledge and growing experience.
Growing milkweed is the bane of many gardeners’ existence, especially those who understand the critical need for this plant in the life cycle of monarch butterflies. The monarch lays its eggs only on milkweed. I’m one of the large group of gardeners who can’t seem to get any milkweed to grow from seed.
The Monarch has experienced a dramatic shortage of places to lay eggs, explaining why its population has declined by 90% in the last two decades. Farmers believe milkweed is the devil’s plant that encroaches on their land, so they weed it out with chemicals required to kill the long taproot. Ranchers weed it out to prevent livestock from eating it because milkweed sap is poisonous. The white milky sap is how the plant got its common name.
NOTE: Just because some milkweed is loaded with nectar from flowers does not mean all milkweed is loaded with sap from the leaves.
There are two migration paths for Monarchs: eastern half of country (think north/south/east of Iowa) and the western half from the Rocky Mountains to pacific coast. The eastern tribe winters (diapause) in Mexico; the western tribe winters (diapause) in southern California. Journey North
From Journey North referring to the eastern migratory butterflies:
The Monarch Butterflies settle in the Oyamel fir tree forests which are situated west of Mexico City; along the eastern perimeter of the Mexican state of Michoacán, also bordering the State of Mexico. Once here, the butterflies cluster on the tree trunks and remain in the region for the winter.
There was a news story a few nights ago that greatly upset me. The Mexican drug cartels are now illegally felling trees (for profit, of course), including the Oyamel trees — Abies religioso. Sweet Cheeses, the monarchs can’t win no matter where they go.
Abies religioso will grow in US zone 8. Needs altitude and cool dry summers. Still looking for seeds online. No seedlings anywhere. The following link has info about the Mexican butterfly sanctuary and its herculean effort to transplant seedlings higher up in the mountains.
I am personally unfamiliar with the Monarch western wintering (diapause) grounds. What I have read indicates that the butterflies prefer eucalyptus trees the most because the leaves are easier to hang onto. Other trees that can attract monarchs for overwintering are gum, Monterey pine, cypress and sycamore trees.
I would greatly appreciate input from our California members about winter diapause populations in both central and southern California. Is overwintering maintaining its numbers? Dwindling? www.cityofpacificgrove.org/...
www.nature.com/...
More about Its Poisonous Sap
Although many milkweeds contain resinoids, most of the ones that cause fatal poisonings contain cardenolides (cardiac glycosides). These cardenolides are similar to digoxin causing electrolyte balances in heart muscle resulting in arrhythmias and cardiac failure.
All parts of the plant contain toxic cardiac glycosides, which can cause nausea, diarrhea, weakness, and confusion in small amounts, and seizures, heart rhythm changes, respiratory paralysis, and even death in large amounts. Milkweed can also irritate the skin and eyes if touched. Use gloves when handling plants!
When you have time, I highly recommend the NOVA (PBS) program entitled Butterfly Blueprints. There are some truly astounding scientific findings and new climate friendly products based on the monarch and other butterflies’ actual bodily organic ingredients.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/butterfly-blueprints/
All ya’ll gardeners need to dig in, pun intended, and help by growing some milkweed. Below is info on the typical garden members of the milkweed family. Get a big cuppa and settle in. I’m going to throw a lot of info at you.
I struggled for 20 years to get a wide variety of milkweed seeds to sprout and grow and never succeeded. The seeds would not germinate. Here’s info painfully and dishearteningly gleaned by trial and error and a lot of reading. And how I cheated to achieve success.
A logic problem: Monarchs only lay their eggs on milkweed. Milkweed grows in many places around the world. Are monarchs everywhere milkweed grows? This is how my search for information began.
Monarchs (Danaus plexippus — our beloved eastern range orange/black/white butterfly) rely on milkweed (asclepias) to reproduce and repopulate several times during their Spring migration from their winter home in Mexico, northward toward Canada, and again during their Autumnal return home. The western migration winters in southern Cali. Both migrations only occur in North America.
The monarchs that live and reproduce in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, and the Pacific Islands are a different species (Danaus erippus).
Complicating matters even more is the fact that there are at least five orange/black/white butterflies that are Danaus plexxipus look-alikes. www.saveourmonarchs.org/…
Asclepias Genus and Where It Grows
Plant Order by latin name — a refresher. Following example is Texas native antelope horns green milkweed (common name).
Scientific name: Asclepias (genus is first name) asperula (species is second
name, usually italicized)
This can be written in either direction — up or down.
Soil ph: 4.8 to 6.8 (neutral to acidic)
http://blogs.edf.org/growingreturns/2017/09/07/once-a-pesky-plant-for-farmers-this-weed-presents-a-new-opportunity/
There are 140 species of milkweed: asclepias (ah-SKLEE-pee-us). Some of the 140 members of this group are more attractive to the female monarch for egg laying. Sometimes the female monarch will deliberately spread her eggs around to insure a better larvae survival result.
Ecosphere (online ESA Journal — https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/21508925) experimented by planting 4 different species of milkweed in a compact area. Very interesting study results. Swamp milkweed (A. incarnata) did the best. It’s beyond my ken to follow the “not-all-eggs-in-one-basket” suggestion, especially when — at least for me — growing even one species from seed seems impossible. AND I wanted Texas native plants.
Following are the most prolific species in the US and Canada:
Asclepias syriaca, called common milkweed, butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed, is a species of flowering plant. It is native to southern Canada and much of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, excluding the drier parts of the prairies. Wikipedia
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Asclepias tuberosa, the butterfly weed, is a species of milkweed native to eastern and southwestern North America. It is commonly known as butterfly weed because of the butterflies that are attracted to the plant by its vibrant orange flower color and its copious production of nectar. Unfortunately, this milkweed has the lowest source of sap. Wikipedia
Butterfly weed grows commonly in dry open habitats and is very common in the prairies and grasslands of the Midwest and Great Plains. This beautiful native wildflower is found from Maine to South Dakota to the desert southwest to Florida.
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Asclepias incarnata, the swamp milkweed, rose milkweed, rose milkflower, swamp silkweed, or white Indian hemp, is a herbaceous perennial plant species native to North America. Wikipedia
According to the USDA, Asclepias incarnata occurs in Eastern Canada and in every state in the United States except Arizona, Mississippi and states with a Pacific coastline. Indigenous plants are found in sunny wet areas like floodplains, river bottomland, swamps and wet meadows.
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Asclepias speciosa is a perennial plant known commonly as the showy milkweed and is found in the Western half of North America. Wikipedia
Showy Milkweed is common through its native range which extends mostly west of the Mississippi River. In its native range, it can be found in prairies, savannas, and other open spaces. It does not tolerate shade, but can handle most soil types.
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Asclepias viridis is a species of milkweed known by the common names green milkweed, green antelopehorn and spider milkweed. The Latin word viridis means green. Wikipedia
A. viridis has a native range of Texas north to Nebraska and eastward as far as West Virginia and South Carolina. Asclepias asperula (Texas antelope horns) has a native range from Texas north to Nebraska and Idaho and extending westward to California. Both species of milkweed are loved by Monarchs.
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Asclepias hirtella, commonly called the tall green milkweed, is a species of flowering plant in the milkweed genus (dogbane family). It is native to Canada and the United States, where its range is concentrated in the Midwest and Upper South. Wikipedia
Asclepias hirtella is native to West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin to northern Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma to south western Kentucky. It is a prairie species native to 13 US states and one Canadian province, but is becoming rare or declining in numbers in parts of its native range. A. hirtella is rare in Minnesota and listed as a threatened species in that state, where it occurs in the south eastern corner in mesic (moderate amount of moisture) prairie habitats.
https://www.monarchparasites.org/milkweed-identification
seedfinderhttps://www.xerces.org/milkweed
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Asclepias curassavica, commonly known as tropical milkweed and sometimes called Mexican butterfly weed, is another flowering species. It is native to the American tropics and has a pantropical distribution as an introduced species. Wikipedia I call this the imitator milkweed.
DO NOT PLANT or GROW THIS Tropical milkweed carries a parasite with it; AND it does not produce the poisonous sap needed by larvae to create their nasty taste to predators.
It’s hard to tell Asclepias tuberosa from the imitator Asclepias curassavica since both look alike. See below.
From Xerces Society Blog
https://xerces.org/blog/tropical-milkweed-a-no-grow
Ophryocystis elektroscirrha or OE for short, can travel with monarchs visiting the plants and become deposited on leaves. When caterpillars hatch and start eating the plant, they ingest the OE. High OE levels in adult monarchs have been linked to lower migration success in the eastern monarch population, as well as reductions in body mass, lifespan, mating success, and flight ability. Tropical milkweed contains NO toxin in the sap so therefore cannot pass it to the larvae.
http://www.monarchs-and-milkweed.com/Monarch%20Life%20Cycle.htm
ttps://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.2064
www.monarchs-and-milkweed.com/...
Starting from seed
Here’s where to find native milkweed seeds. Xerces Society answers lots of questions. www.xerces.org/…
It is essential that you start and plant milkweed that is native to your part of the country. Look for native seeds that produce both nectar flowers AND poisonous sap.
All milkweed seed needs to be cold and moisture stratified. https://www.saveourmonarchs.org/blog/its-time-to-start-cold-stratifying-your-milkweed-seeds
Everything I’ve read (and experienced) says the germination rate is roughly 5% at best. So one packet of ten seeds might produce one sprout. One packet of twenty seeds might produce one sprout. One packet of 40 seeds might produce two sprouts. It’s discouraging. And it takes up a lot of room in the frig, (at least for me in Texas).
If you live in winter cold country, the stratification takes place naturally outside. How it’s done by Mother Nature with seeds alone without a gardener’s involvement outside is a mystery to me. Seeds must sprout outside — somehow. I live in Texas, a place where temperatures are completely unpredictable. Expecting long spells of freezing cold is not a winter ‘thing’ here. However, recently the long spells of freezing cold are becoming more common. Curse you, climate change...
I tried the cold/moisture stratification method over and over and very few seeds ever sprouted. Those that did sprout, did not like being planted in small pots or seed trays. 98% of the 40+ packets of seed trials had no sprouts within the normal 30 day period. Not even after 45 days. At 60 days (still no sprouts) the seeds turned moldy in the refrigerator. Many $10+ packets of moldy seeds went out with the garbage. MAKE SURE YOUR SEEDS ARE FRESH!!!
I learned how the Discovery Gardens did it. They started with one or two precious sprouts in a really big pot. One 12” diameter black plastic nursery pot needs about 1/2 cubic foot of soil. Opinions very as to whether to partially or completely bury the sprouted seed in soil after cold stratification. I just used the wrong size pot so the sprout never grew its essential long taproot. A transplant needs lots of light and water in a reasonably well controlled Spring-like temperature. Then the waiting begins. I wish you good luck. Patience is slowly becoming one of my virtues.
It takes at least one year for a sprout to start to enlarge its taproot; a second year to add green branches; the third year yields flowers and pup plants from taproot nodes.
The nitty-gritty of growing already sprouted milkweed
I cheated by purchasing a start of Texas native antelope horns milkweed (Asclepias asperula) at the Discovery Gardens annual spring plant sale in 2019 ($18). Here’s an amazing fact: Discovery Gardens had exactly 3 one-year-old sprouted antelope horns plants available. These people are the botanists who can grow anything! There were 4 green milkweed (Asclepias viridis) plants available. I was the first person (on the first sale day) in the long line at 7am for milkweed. All the plants were gone within 3 minutes.
I received an email yesterday from Dallas Texas Discovery Gardens indicating a special “flora fest” in May. Tickets and family packages were being sold to raise funds to renovate the greenhouse for growing native plants, including milkweed. This was in response to the massive turnout of customers the last three springs to acquire native pollinator plants.
I signed up for a $40 ticket. The email read in part:
“Two years ago, during our COVID-induced shutdown, the staff and Board of Texas Discovery Gardens took advantage of that three-month opportunity to reconsider our missions... One enhanced stream came from our Horticulture Department, which had previously hosted only two plant sales per year. However, we discovered that the DFW community is ready and willing to reconsider their landscape plantings to benefit butterflies, birds and bees! The selling of our specialty -- native pollinator plants – had proven quite successful when we began holding more sales!”
“To facilitate these monthly native plant sales we must increase propagation and we do not currently have a fully functioning greenhouse. Ours is in need of $300,000 worth of repairs, updates, and renovations. Through good stewardship of operational funds and other fundraising, we have already successfully raised about half of that amount! With this letter, we are announcing a $50,000 campaign.”
I bought a $40 ticket.
The tiny start was about 1-1/2” tall and was in a common 4 gallon nursery 12” diameter, 10” tall black plastic container. There was nothing unusual about the soil — just good soil. Planting instructions were very specific: full sun, dig hole at least 16” deep and 16” wide; add compost; plant; water in well. With a few slaps on the sides and bottom of the planter, the plant fell out and lost some loose soil.
Just because this plant’s name has the word “weed” in it, does NOT mean it doesn’t need good nutritious soil. Compost is recommended. And my absolute go-to organic fertilizer: MicroLife pellets.
This tiny start had a very long 6” and very healthy looking tap root with no visible nodes that I remember - not sure I even looked. So it was already at least 6-12 months old. It took a place of honor in the butterfly garden. That was Spring 2019. In Spring 2020, the start grew a bit (2 or 3 inches), rather like a leaning ground vine looking for sun. In 2021 it grew one large plant from the original sprout and another smaller plant about 5” away (like an iris). The first plant then grew rapidly and produced several stalks with umbels of blooms (title photo). God willin’ and the crick don’t rise, I expect two plants to bloom in 2022 with a third showing up somewhere about 5” beyond the second plant.
I did absolutely nothing with the seeds from the 2021 flowers. I let them fly and land wherever they wanted. This will be the “seed sprout outside by nature” experiment. They should be duly cold stratified this year due to our many hard freezes. We had 1.5” of rain overnight Feb. 2-4. That doesn’t count sleet/snow. If any seeds sprout in Spring, I’ll let you know.
Transplanting milkweed
The taproot is key. It is very long. Give it room to grow not just down, but also OUT. If you accidentally dig up your milkweed or cut the taproot in half, plant the bare root horizontally with nodes facing up. The taproot is a rhizome and new starts will come from the nodes. Picture shows growth from a bare taproot.
Warning to those tempted to raid roadside plants: Out in the wild parts of the Dallas exurbs, one can find lots of native green milkweed happily growing in open fields. I have been tempted — mightily — to stop the car, get out and dig plants. After careful consideration, I realized arrest for trespass would be highly likely. This is Texas, you know. And no one should disturb already established monarch migration areas.
Asclepias tuberosa (orange flowers — butterfly weed) showed up in the butterfly garden this year and it was still in bloom until the first hard freeze in early January. (Unusually warm 2021 December). It was about 30” tall (I didn’t measure). Everything I’ve read says butterfly weed takes at least 1 year to produce a small start (and also has a very long tap root) and 2 years at least to produce flowers; (doesn’t grow as tall as tropical milkweed). All of this makes perfect sense since the new butterfly garden with Texas native plants was begun almost 3 years ago and attracted many pollinators with pollen and/or seeds that came from who-knows-where.
Buttterfly weed can act as a host plant for monarch egg laying; it is preferred to be used as a nectar plant, since it produces significantly lesser amount of sap. Actually, the sap is almost nonexistent. The toxin in the sap is what is required for larvae to become “distasteful” and sends predators fleeing. Does the monarch know the difference? Dunno. Monarchs will feed from the flowers. They will lay eggs in a pinch on butterfly weed. I really wish I had a formal education in botany. Might have answers.
Milkweed species like A. incarnata is easy to transplant because it doesn’t have a long central taproot growing deep beneath the soil.
The species that gardeners have problems transplanting are the varieties that do have these long tap roots….tapped out species include Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed), Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed), and most other milkweed varieties native to the US and Canada.
I had volunteer tropical (non-native) milkweed in the garden the last two years (Asclepias curassavica). Pulled every plant before it got to 10” tall to insure no monarchs laid eggs starting in May, 2020 and again in May, 2021. This is the plant that hosts a protozoan parasite.
That decision was justified since tropical milkweed also contains NO toxin in the sap so therefore cannot pass it to the larvae. Eliminating the possibilities of having hatched larvae in October was worth it.
Right now, I’m all “tapped out” of information on monarchs and milkweed. Here’s the most recent info from Journey North on Monarch diapause.
https://journeynorth.org/monarchs/news/spring-2022/01192022-peak-overwintering-season?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Monarch%20News%20January%2019%202022&utm_content=Monarch%20News%20January%2019%202022+CID_697d04d8dcd1dcc465f1465571716f74&utm_source=Journey%20North%20emails&utm_term=Read%20more%20monarch%20news
Happy gardening! Here’s wishing all ya’ll the best of green-thumb luck growing milkweed! The monarchs will reward you by gracing your garden with beauty daily in spring/summer/autumn. The planet will thank you for your help maintaining a strong species of the amazing Danaus plexippus.