How to Keep Milkweed and Save Monarch Migration

The thick stemmed plants kept appearing in the flower beds. I knew they didn’t belong within the groomed borders, where they stood out like flies in a honey pot. I plucked some out before its identity emerged in the form of round umbels with pretty pink flowers. It’s common Milkweed, (Asclepias syriaca), also known as butterfly flower, or silkweed. Attention is a funny thing in nature, once you know a thing, you see it everywhere.

Where’s the Milkweed?

It was on building sites, sidewalls, cracks in concrete, and in other gardens. While it may appear everywhere, its longevity in places not preserved as a natural habitat is limited. This is unfortunate because it’s the only food for the monarch caterpillars. No milkweed, no monarchs.

By the time this post is published, the monarchs will have left Southern Ontario on their long journey.

Plants will always show us how we are connected to nature. We strive in theory for a holistic balance. However, human actions speak of disconnection. Milkweed is a plant which speaks to ecology, migration and biodiversity.

Our small blue planet is a massively complex biosphere. All species
are interconnected and often depend on each other. One loss may
not seem important, but it has a knock-on effect, and the losses were accelerating.

Caro Feely

Milkweed is a herbaceous perennial in the scientific family: Apocynaceae. It is so called because of its milky sap. This sap irritates the skin so be careful, and handle with gloves if you must. Also, keep the sap away from your eyes.

Benefits of Milkweed

The seed pods of this amazing plant, are filled with fluffy, wind friendly seeds. The milkweed floss is buoyant when spun into yarn and was used during the second world war in life preservers. Today, some companies use it in comforters and jackets. It is also very apropos that is named after the Greek God of Medicine.

Other uses include:

• Use of the strong stalk to make rope by Indigenous people.
• Young shoots can be boiled and eaten.
• The flower buds can cooked in stir fries, and in soup.

The poet, Helen Hunt Jackson, dedicated a sonnet to the Milkweed, in which she describes how its sap, is much sought after by butterflies:

“By day I mark no living thing which rests 

On thee, save butterflies of gold and brown, 

Who turn from flowers that are more fair, more sweet, “

Helen Hunt Jackson

Monarch butterfly

I first noticed what looked like the bean toys my son used to play with, attached to the underside of a rail on the deck. Thinking it was stuck on some crack in the wood I ignored it. It was hunter green in colour, with some gold linear specks around the top. Uniquely, the texture looked like the plastic coating of a pill capsule. One day, it was gone, and fragments of the case remained. Finally, it clicked, the deck had been host to a Monarch pupa/chrysalis. It was hiding in plain sight, and its location had allowed it to survive incognito.

Had I paid more attention to it, I might have witnessed the birth of a butterfly. I thought it was long gone, but a couple of days later I saw her, I knew it was a female of the species, as she did not have the black spot on her wings, which males have.

Left Behind

This Butterfly, I called her Jane, because there was a sadness about her. She reminded me of Charlotte Bronte’s character, Jane Eyre. Jane seemed a little slower than other butterflies, in fact, there were no others around. It was late in the season, and Jane should have been long gone. Even the stragglers were nowhere to be seen.

Monarch Migration

The migration of the monarch butterfly from Canada to Mexico is well researched, but still a mysterious phenomenon. It’s complicated. Let’s just say that the butterflies that leave are not the ones coming back.

I knew deep down that Jane was never going to make the migration. Each day I would go out, and not seeing her, would think she did it. Then, her colourful wings would appear against the grey stones. Her purpose was for me to acknowledge her, and tell others about her kind. She allowed me to come close to take pictures, and honour her existence. I could only offer my support, and promise to tell her story. This is the testimony to our interconnectedness.

I did eventually see Jane’s lifeless form blowing across the grass. Her job was done.

Now on an endangered list, the Monarch Butterfly has entered that precarious phase between continued existence and oblivion.

As for the milkweed plants in my garden beds, we have reached a truce. Some milkweed plants in the flower beds, are allowed to stay within their confines. Any rebels without a cause, will be removed. I have so many questions about Monarchs now, I am toying with the idea of becoming a citizen scientist via Nature Watch Canada. They are monitoring milkweed habitats across the continent. There is another group looking into the decline of the monarch butterfly, the North American Butterfly Association which monitors migrations and does butterfly counts. It will be a way of saying thanks to Jane.