How is milkweed essential for the existance of the monarch butterfly?
Adult monarchs (and many other butterfly species) love nectar-rich milkweed as a food source, but there is a more important reason for the monarch’s close attachment to milkweed. Milkweed is the only plant material that monarch caterpillars can eat. Remove monarch caterpillars from milkweed and they will starve; or they will eat other plant material, sicken, and then die. The scientific name for milkweed is Asclepias (pronounced as-KLEE-pea-us). Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed, pictured here), is well known to most northeasterners. It grows along roadsides, in fields, and in open meadows. Producing sweet smelling mauve-pink flowers late June through July, common milkweed usually matures at about 48″ high. Some people assume common milkweed to be the only milkweed species which exists. Actually, over 100 species of Asclepias grow in the USA, with over 200 different species growing worldwide. Common milkweed is not the only Asclepias species which can be utilized as a food source for
