DEAD PLANTS! screamed the subject line of an urgent email I received from my daughter (she used about ten exclamation marks). She also left two frantic messages: Check your email!!!!!! In the email was this photo.
MOM — my plants are dying — HELP (herbaceous perennial Asclepias speciosa milkweeds planted two weeks ago)
She’s a new plant caretaker and worried about her babies. This summer she had lawn grass tilled and left to die in the heat. In September, her friend scraped the dead grass off and implemented the native plant landscape I designed for her front yard.
Our timing was excellent. Site work of creating a dry creek bed as a rock and cobble feature and to help drain run-off away from her house occurred during a dry sunny period.
We postponed planting until the end of October and two days later a storm brought slow rains for two days. Some of the plants we chose are evergreen or perennials with leaves that often persist all winter, like Ceanothus diversifolius (pine mat), Penstemon heterophyllus (foothill penstemon — you can see one in the top left of the photo), Eriogonum umbellatum (sulphur buckwheat) and Monardella villosa (coyote mint). Another, Asclepias speciosa (showy milkweed) is an herbaceous perennial that dies back and disappears during the winter.
It was this last plant that had my daughter firing off photos, desperate emails and messages in hope — I don’t exactly know what she hoped. Maybe that I would come and exhale my botanist’s magic breath on the plants and bring back life. I guess I did in a way, because I reassured her that this is exactly what we expect to see from sleeping milkweeds in late fall, and they will grow green and healthy next spring when the Monarchs return from winter vacation in Mexico (although our California Monarchs winter on California’s coast, usually in eucalyptus trees).
We are doing our part to help Monarch conservation by planting the specific milkweed required by the butterfly’s larval phase in our area (and other native plants that provide nectar to adult butterflies). In doing this, we and other gardeners join with conservation groups and three nations with essential habitats for Monarch’s larval, breeding adult, and over-wintering phases.
You, too, can support Monarchs by planting milkweed, even in urban areas. But you must plant the locally native species of milkweed. Fly below the blue box for information on how to find the proper species to plant in your area, and why you should avoid introduced milkweeds.
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This non-native tropical scarlet milkweed is detrimental to Monarch larvae. Only plant milkweed species native to your area!
Planting species of milkweed not native to your area can be harmful to Monarchs instead of beneficial. The life cycle of the Monarch is inextricably tied to the life cycle of the milkweed host plant and non-native milkweeds may not properly synchronize. Adult Monarchs lay eggs on the undersides of milkweed leaves and then the hatched larvae feed exclusively on the plant through five larval phases (called instar) that are successively larger. The larvae require enough milkweed to make it through these five instar phases to reach the pupae stage where each larva forms a chrysalis in which they transform into an adult butterfly. The eggs laid by the adult depend on the nutrition in milkweed plant eaten by the larva. The toxicity of Monarch butterflies that discourages predation derives from chemicals in the milkweed eaten by the larvae. So the success of the Monarch’s entire life cycle depends on host plant availability.
The Xerces Foundation is a reliable source of information on Monarchs, including where to purchase seeds and which milkweed species are suitable for your area. Xerces also recommends the following resource. “The Biota of North America Program’s (BONAP) web-based North American Plant Atlas provides county-level distribution information for all Asclepias species in the lower 48 states (milkweeds are not native to Alaska and Hawaii).”
Another problem is introduced milkweed species. Tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica, also called scarlet milkweed and blood flower) is commonly sold commercially. There is evidence that scarlet milkweed (shown in side photo) causes Monarch’s to reproduce outside their regular breeding season, which disrupts their migration cycle and increases transmission and virulence of the protozoan parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha. Monarch Joint Venture has more information on the parasite, consequences of tropical milkweed, and management options for existing tropical milkweed to minimize harm to Monarchs. Two other introduced milkweeds are also found in the US and should be avoided: African milkweed (A. fruticosa), and swan or balloon plant (A. physocarpa).
Journey North is a citizen science App for reporting Monarch sightings and other data and also a website with lots of great information about Monarch’s natural history. You also can see where sightings have been reported and the extent of north/south seasonal migration that has occurred to date.
Report your sightings each fall and spring as the monarchs travel to and from Mexico.
Track migration on real-time migration maps. Help scientists learn more about monarchs.
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Thanks to conservation efforts, the “butterfly highway” saw a ton more traffic this year published on DK Tuesday presented the good news on more Monarchs reaching their over-wintering habitat in Mèxico this year.
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