We here don’t have a large part of
our property open enough to have lots of milkweed growing but being
aware of the link between milkweed and the monarch butterfly make a
point of mot cutting any down that does show up in our open areas.
Over the more than 10 years we have been privileged to own this
property we have noted a decline in the number of milkweed flowering
or even showing a few leaves, some years we hardly see any. We are
thus surprised and pleased to see a massive increase in the milkweed
population this year, we have never seen such a large number of
plants on our property, unfortunately this coincides with a report
that this year also has seen the largest decline in monarch migration
on record.
Is this coincidence or is this natures
way of evening out the balance given the destruction of the monarchs
forest wintering areas in Mexico, I don’t know, only time will tell
but meanwhile I will be looking for them to be laying their eggs on
my milkweed. Thus far I have not seen any and have no idea how the
rather strange weather patterns will effect them, will the extreme
heat send them further north, will heavy rain effect their egg
clusters? Its not something I have taken a great deal of time
investigating but given what I believe to be an increasing fragility
of our natural environment you may be sure I will celebrate that
first sighting of a monarch on one of our plants and hope that it
signals a return to balance and a return of the monarch population.
Yahooo, just saw the first Monach this
year and the milkweed is in full flower awaiting their arrival!
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