Milkweed (Asclepias syrica)

Did You Know? Each year aproximately 180-280 million Monarch butterflies start migrating, mate, lay eggs along the way and their children continue the round trip. Milkweed is needed along the entire route or they will not survive. It takes more than one milkweed plant for each surviving adult due to natural predators. That is an enormous ammount of milkweed! Most North Americans were very lucky to have seen even one Monarch Butterfly over the past few years.

You can help! Become an active participant now. Make a difference today. It all starts with one seed... Just plant some milkweed in your back yard. Your plants will help the Monarchs on their migration route North.

Monarchs need your help! This year marks the lowest number of over wintering Monarchs in the Mexican mountains in the last 20 years...and we have only known about their over wintering sites for 20 years!. There are 94% fewer than at their recorded height and 59% less than there were last year. In 1991, over 75% of the wintering Monarchs from North America froze to death in Mexico as a result of three days of rain and sub-freezing conditions. Their numbers showed some recovery but there is a nationwide shortage of milkweed. Freak weather patterns destroy habitat and kill millions of helpless Monarchs. But these natural events are not the only challenges that face the Monarch. Pesticide application and genetically modified crops cover important parts of the Monarch's migratory path and serve as killing fields for any Monarch that pass through these millions of acres of toxins and biological agents that kill them and their young. They are unintended casualties in a war to protect crops. Are our Monarchs worth our efforts to protect? Do we even know the total effects on our environment from the use of these agents? The Monarch habitat must be protected now to ensure their survival, before we see the day when this miracle of nature is only a memory. Please plant seeds and ensure their survival.

A Milkweed in every yard!