This week: Plant butterfly milkweed, not butterfly bush
Hello again!
This weekend I stumbled on some Belgian block cobblestones on Craigslist and happily purchased them to complete my garden edging. It’s a relief to find them, and also great to reuse something that a neighbor no longer wanted. Happier yet, Asclepias tuberosa (common name: butterfly weed or butterfly milkweed) is in bloom! Here's a picture of it with my new-to-me edging.
I’ve always heard that milkweed is critical to the Monarch butterfly lifecycle, but I never really understood why. Monarchs seem to feast on lots of plants like liatris, coneflowers, ironweed, and the famed butterfly bush, so why do they need milkweed? Well, even though Monarchs can gather nectar from lots of plants, they will only lay their eggs on milkweed—no other plant. And due to commercial farming practices, pesticides, and so on, there is a shortage of milkweed. So, plant some of it in your own garden to help a Monarch out!
You might be wondering if you should plant that other butterfly-named plant, butterfly bush (Buddleia). Please don’t! It’s an invasive spreader throughout the east coast and parts of the midwest. Its seeds are easily spread, and since it’s an import from Asia, there are no predators to keep it in check and it will crowd out native plants that are more ecologically sound.
Elsewhere:
Did you know that there are paleontologists who study plants? It’s not all about the dinosaurs! Paleobotanists study plant fossil to find out what came before (or what still is). Take a deep dive with the In Defense of Plants podcast.