#butterfly-garden

[anipgarden]

Some of you may have heard about Monarch butterflies being added to the Threatened species list in the US and be planning to immediately rush out in spring and buy all the milkweed you can manage to do your part and help the species.

And that's fantastic!! Starting a pollinator garden and/or encouraging people and businesses around you to do the same is an excellent way to help not just Monarchs but many other threatened and at-risk pollinator species!

However.

Please please PLEASE do not obtain Tropical Milkweed for this purpose!

Tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica)--also commonly known as bloodflower, Mexican butterflyweed, and scarlet milkweed--will likely be the first species of milkweed you find for sale at most nurseries. It'll be fairly cheap, too, and it grows and propagates so easily you'll just want to grab it! But do not do that!

Tropical milkweed can cause a host of issues that can ultimately harm the butterflies you're trying to help, such as--

Harboring a protozoan parasite called OE (which has been linked to lower migration success, reductions in body mass, lifespan, mating success, and flight ability) for long periods of time

Remaining alive for longer periods, encouraging breeding during migration time/overwintering time as well as keeping monarchs in an area until a hard freeze wherein which they die

Actually becoming toxic to monarch caterpillars when exposed to warmer temperatures associated with climate change

However--do not be discouraged!! There are over 100 species of milkweed native to the United States, and plenty of resources on which are native to your state specifically! From there, you can find the nurseries dedicated to selling native milkweeds, or buy/trade for/collect seeds to grow them yourself!!

The world of native milkweeds is vast and enchanting, and I'm sure you'll soon find a favorite species native to your area that suits your growing space! There's tons of amazing options--whether you choose the beautiful pink vanilla-smelling swamp milkweed, the sophisticated redring milkweed, the elusive purple milkweed, the alluring green antelopehorn milkweed, or the charming heartleaf milkweed, or even something I didn't list!

And there's tons of resources and lots of people willing to help you on your native milkweed journey! Like me! Feel free to shoot me an ask if you have any questions!

Just. PLEASE. Leave the tropical milkweed alone. Stay away.

TLDR: Start a pollinator garden to help the monarchs! Just don't plant tropical milkweed. There's hundreds of other milkweeds to grow instead!

[bebs-art-gallery]

𝓑𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒍𝒚 𝓕𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝓜𝒐𝒕𝒉 𝓕𝒂𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝓦𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅

© Malina Dowling

[lihvamay1990]

Pool Pool Landscaping Miami Mid-sized eclectic backyard concrete pool landscaping idea with a kidney-shaped pool

[bebx]

The Beauty of Moths

— by Pieter Cramer (1721–1776)

[teamiibo]

my wiiiife

[animeglitch]

[littledrawins]

Butterfly garden

Did you know you can grow butterflies at home? 🦋

Companies like InsectLore send live caterpillars in the post sealed in a little pot full of food. Over the next week, they grow to TEN times their original size before spinning into chrysalides. Then you move them into a special little indoor butterfly garden to transform. A week later they emerge as beautiful little butterflies ready to be released.

My kids love watching the different phases and the magical moment when we set them free outside. 

[reedvictor]

[maureen2musings]

nyotome

[felacunti]

drake is genuinely a shakespearean flavor of loser, the kind of shit that could only be written in a book. to lose a beef so hard your opp makes the song of the summer and headlines the super bowl. to then get so slammed by said opp dropping his album that you try to sue your own label and the streaming platform that made your career to get back at him instead of suing him. to create legal precedent that will, inevitably, make it harder for people to hold these entities responsible in the future because his case is doa. he is literally toxic to the rap game, man. niggas got to evict him. this is it.

[boschintegral-photo]

Indian Fritillary (Argynnis Hyperbius) (F) Kyoto, Japan

[blooming-lenses]

small copper on a white rose

2024/06/22

[textless]

[ryartchus]

🌊.

[m-eltdown]

[spiritofthemeadow]

ig - afternoondreams