IN THE GARDEN section features an article about the various kinds of milkweed, the creatures they attract in addition to monarchs, and how to think about this plant in your garden.
I especially admire the llustrations by Beverly Duncan, from “The Milkweed Lands” by Eric Lee-Mäder.
This is the title of the article: If You Plant Milkweed, They Will Come. (And Not Just the Butterflies.) These underappreciated plants attract a “hungry throng” of beneficial insects. They’re not bad to look at, either.
Some text culled from this piece:
If someone says “milkweed,” maybe you also hear “monarch butterfly” in your head. It’s almost as if the two are inextricably linked.
Monarchs have evolved to ingest milkweeds without harm. Their larvae rely on Asclepias as an obligate host plant, or a food required for at least one stage of development. Eating it fosters an anti-predation chemical defense of their own.
So critical is this relationship that female monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed leaves, ensuring that the needed sustenance is at hand when offspring emerge.
“They use their olfactory sense to identify the locations of milkweeds on wind currents,” Mr. Lee-Mäder said, “tracking those down like bloodhounds on a trail, to be able to lay their eggs on those plants.”
“Planting milkweeds in a garden may be a small dent — but it’s a dent,” Mr. Lee-Mäder said. “If everybody does it, it will add a different kind of richness to our landscapes.”
Rebeccas Butterfly Reflections 