Margaret planted a tiny swamp milkweed seedling (Asclepias incarnata) in a
flower bed with a southeastern exposure but shaded much of the day) next to a
shed wall last growing season. It came up again this year at our VA farm and
grew into a plant with three shoots. These produced 23 seed pods and she
noticed four monarch caterpillars in late instars on the plant recently.
This is interesting since we have thousands of common milkweeds (A. syriaca) in
the surrounding hayfields, many flying monarchs, but very few caterpillars on
these wild plants. About 20 wild A. tuberosa in the hayfields have no monarch
cats on them but lots of seed pods.
So it shows the enigmatic nature of encouraging monarchs, the value of trying
planting in beds, and the possible preference of local monarchs for swamp
milkweed..
Bill and Margaret Dunson
Galax, VA
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Swamp milkweed with monarch cats at farm 9.12.15 Bill Dunson IMG_8989 aa.jpg
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Swamp milkweed at VA farm 23 seed pods 9.11.15 Bill Dunson IMG_8969 aa.jpg
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Swamp milkweed with monarch cat at VA farm 9.11.15 Bill Dunson IMG_8980 bb.jpg
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