Everyone in North America probably knows how monarch butterflies and milkweed plants need each other to survive. Female monarchs will only put their eggs on types of milkweed, and monarch caterpillars will eat absolutely nothing else. Because of this, scientists who study animals have said the monarch butterfly population has steadily gotten smaller over the last ten, twenty, thirty years because of milkweed disappearing all over the place. So, planting milkweed in your own garden is becoming more and more essential to actually protect monarchs.
Why Only Milkweed: The Biology Behind the Dependency
Milkweed plants, belonging to the Asclepias genus, have cardiac glycosides inside them. These are poisonous substances that happen to be created by nature, and they’re harmful to nearly all insects and animals with backbones. Monarch caterpillars are different; they’ve developed the ability to live with these substances, actually storing them within their own bodies. This in turn makes the caterpillars poisonous and unpleasant to creatures that want to eat them, for instance, birds. Because this chemical protection is so important for monarchs to live, they now absolutely need milkweed to eat when they are young. No other plant gives them the specific poisons they require to build up their defense against being eaten.
The Best Milkweed Species for Home Gardens
There are more than seventy kinds of milkweed that originally come from North America and to have a successful garden and good quality place for monarchs to live, you need to choose a type that will thrive in your local weather and the way your garden’s ground is. The most common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) does well in areas from zone 3 to zone 9, needing lots of sun and normal earth. Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) is perfectly fine with soggy spots and isn’t quite as prone to rapidly taking over your garden with roots under the surface, something the common milkweed does. Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) has really bright orange flowers, likes dry to average soil and is the prettiest for flower beds. And in the western states, showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) is the main milkweed that monarch butterflies will use to lay eggs on.
What Else Monarchs Need Beyond Milkweed
Monarch butterflies absolutely need milkweed for laying eggs and for their caterpillars to grow, but adult monarchs equally need energy from nectar, and the plants providing it are crucial for the whole population to thrive. Adult monarchs will feed on the nectar of many, many kinds of flowers, but they really like coneflowers (Echinacea), black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia), asters, goldenrod, lantana, zinnias, and Joe-Pye weed. If you put these flowers full of nectar in with your milkweed, you’ll have a proper home for monarchs at all points in their lives. Ecologists who study wildlife suggest having at least ten milkweed plants in a garden, which will feed a number of caterpillars as they grow, and to include a lot of different nectar flowers that are always in bloom.
Key Takeaway
Monarch butterflies absolutely need milkweed to lay their eggs and for their caterpillars to grow, so milkweed is essential if we want to help monarchs survive. People with gardens can really help by planting at least ten milkweed plants, and including flowers that provide a lot of nectar – such as coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, zinnias – is a good idea. What’s more, if you pick milkweed types that originally come from your area, they’ll do best in your local weather and give monarchs the very best home.
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