Why Milkweed?

I decided to name my blog after one of my favorite butterfly plants, Milkweed.  I have had a lot of success attracting Monarch butterflies with this plant. It is also a host plant to the Queen butterfly. Milkweed is both a host and a nectar plant. A host plant is the plant that the butterfly lays her eggs on. After the eggs hatch, the caterpillars begin munching on the host plant. Each type of caterpillar has a specific host plant. That is a monarch caterpillar munching on milkweed in the photos below my header. A nectar plant is the plant that the butterfly obtains its food from.  So milkweed serves both purposes and grows pretty easily. It also self-sows which saves both time and money. 

There are several types of Milkweed – probably the most common is the Mexican Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica). I snapped this picture at the Butterfly Garden at the Palm Beach Zoo last weekend (more on that trip in a future posting!)

Here is White Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias perennis). It is a Florida native (Photo by starmoon00). 

By the way, children love these striped caterpillars. My daughter and I have raised several from caterpillar to butterfly!