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Home > Blogs > Birds and Butterflies > Archives > 2011 > September > 21 > Entry
Amazing Monarch Food
Most people recognize Monarchs, the beautiful orange butterflies with black and white markings that are seen in summer. They seem to soar more than just flitter around like many other butterflies I have watched. I often see them flying high over fields and the roads as I am driving in late summer. There is a very good reason they need to be able to do this; they are on a long journey south, all the way down to Mexico.
In a mysterious migration, up to 3,000 miles, the Monarch butterflies gather in warmer climates for the winter. Depending on which side of the Rocky Mountains they come from, these little creatures will almost completely cover trees in specialized habitats of either the California coast or central Mexico and wait there until spring. When it starts warming up and their host plants start to grow back they begin to fly north and reproduce until their grandchildren end up back North, where their grandparents had come from.
Okay, if you got all that you might still be wondering what a host plant is. A host plant is a specific plant, or family of plants, that an insect relies on to complete its life cycle. In the case of butterflies, a host plant is what the adult butterfly lays her eggs on for her babies (caterpillars) to eat. You probably knew that caterpillars eat plants, but isn’t it amazing that their mom chooses a specific plant that is necessary for them to survive?
A Monarch’s host plant is called Milkweed. There are different kinds of Milkweed, and several that grow in Ohio, including Butterfly Weed and Common Milkweed. Both of these have beautiful flowers that the adults use for nectar. In late summer obvious seedpods burst open in with seeds on silken parachutes. A lot of people seem to relate to finding these as a child. I see Milkweed more often at parks but there is a trend of planting in home gardens now. This is really important for Monarchs and they are an attractive addition to a landscape. Plus, the seedpods are fun to play with!
Monarch numbers are much lower than they used to be due to habitat destruction and harmful pesticides, to name a couple of things. Every year, Monarchs are tagged by organizations and citizens like you that want to help track their populations. Planting Milkweed is an easy and fun way to help the Monarchs that come to Ohio.
Please visit http://www.monarchwatch.org for lots of great information about Monarchs and how you can help them and continue to watch part of their intricate life cycle.
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