Need For (Milk)Weed: Why Is Milkweed So Important?

Joel Hitchens

Back in middle school I had a friend who has the BEST yard. They had tons of flowers, sheep, goats, chickens, and a whole lot of great veggies. It was an amazing place to spend summer days and offered a relaxing and meditative space to be. One of the most unique things about their yard though was how during the summer there would be tons of monarch butterflies. At the time, I had no idea why and thought the space just had some kind of magical aura that attracted them. What I eventually learned was that they had a big cache of native growing milkweed that they had left to do its thing on a section of their land. 

Milkweed is a bit of a misnomer really, because it is not a weed! There are a lot of misconceptions out there about milkweed, which makes it a common target for being uprooted by farmers, gardeners, and landscapers. The reason this is such a problem is that monarch butterflies eat milkweed and plant their eggs on its leaves. Actually, let me rephrase, monarch butterflies ONLY eat milkweed and plant their eggs on its leaves. They can only survive because of milkweed, which makes it vital to keep around! Aside from being beautiful, monarch butterflies pick up pollen on their bodies as they travel from flower to flower making them great pollinators. In the past few decades, monarch butterfly populations have faced a precipitous decline that has accelerated in the past few years. The uprooting of milkweed has been perhaps the most significant factor contributing to this decline.

One of the biggest things you can do to help is to keep whatever milkweed you have in your garden. Many monarchs travel thousands of miles throughout their migratory cycle and having milkweed in the same place it was last year is a big help! (Meanwhile I need GPS to get across town.) If you don’t already have milkweed in your yard, that’s okay! You can plant milkweed in your yard. If you do this make sure you are selecting a variety of milkweed that is native to your region. There are over one hundred species of milkweed that are native to the US, so use this guide to help inform you about which type to get before you order seeds. Once you have decided, the Xerces Society has something called the “Milkweed Project” and as part of this project they have assembled a comprehensive list of milkweed seed vendors that will be helpful in accessing seeds. Karen Cumberledge has also written a very helpful and thorough guide to growing your own milkweed that is worth looking at.

This map by the Xerces Society shows the incredible migration patterns of the Monarchs.

Writing this I thought back to spending time in that garden and all the times we would see a butterfly picking itself up and gracefully riding the wind. It was so special seeing them because I knew just how far they must have travelled to get to the same spot as me at that particular moment in time. Monarch butterflies are representative of our lives. They take these long journeys and go through numerous struggles, all the while becoming more connected to the space they occupy. But if those butterflies are a metaphor for ourselves, and they are dying off rapidly, what does it say about us and how we behave as a species? Maybe it is just observational bias, but I feel like I used to see monarch butterflies more when I was younger than I do now. It makes seeing them even more special now, but spotting one often acts as a reminder of how much rarer they seem to be.

My big hope with this post is that it inspires even just one person to not uproot their milkweed, or plant some in their yard! The monarchs will thank you by showing up, pollinating your garden, and giving it more life (both literally and figuratively). Also, if you don’t have your own plot of land but want to do something for the monarchs, you can donate to the conservations effort being undertaken by Monarch Joint Venture.

Image source: https://www.fws.gov/midwest/monarch/

My Galorian name is Ahitchens, send me a message!

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