If you want more Monarch butterflies in your garden, you need to provide them with larva food.
which is milkweed the only food the larva will eat.
milkweeds have a variety of uses and features of interest.
The common name refers to the
milky juice that oozes from stems and leaves when they are cut or
broken. Because the roots of milkweeds were used as drugs, their
scientific name, Asclepias, was taken from that of the Greek god of
medicine.
The Common Milkweed so often seen in fields, waste places, and
along roadsides.
The "milk" is not the sap of the plant but a special secretion.
Extremely bitter, it serves as a protection against most nibbling and
grazing animals. milkweed leaves are the only food of
the caterpillar of our monarch butterfly.
when caterpillar's eat the milkweed they develop the nasty taste when birds eat them.
Formerly, these were common remedies for
lung trouble and rheumatism.
Their empty pods are favorites for making winter bouquets and
art objects.
The common milkweed bears clusters of dull purple flowers with a
heavy odor which, though unpleasant to us, is unusually
attractive to bees and butterflies.
So plant some milkweed in the back rows of your garden, and increase your monarch visits.