Many gardeners define a weed as any plant growing where it’s not wanted. But what one person sees as a nuisance, another may consider beneficial ground cover. Take milkweed, for example. While some view it as undesirable, others value it for supporting pollinators like monarch butterflies.
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The USDA reports that one out of every three bites of food we eat is thanks to animal pollinators. As home gardeners, there are ways we can help provide what is needed for bees, butterflies, birds, and other pollinators to survive.
September 18, 2024, Press Release from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources: COLUMBUS, Ohio – Picking and planting milkweed seed pods this fall can help future eastern monarch butterflies, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. These butterflies are currently migrating through Ohio on their way to Mexico, where they spend the winter. Various species of milkweed are the only host plants for monarch caterpillars. Each spring, eastern monarchs lay eggs on milkweed as they migrate north from Mexico. Monarchs travel between 50 and 100 miles per day on a journey that may cover several thousand miles in total. After several generations, monarchs reach their northernmost range in southern Canada.
The monarch is native to Ohio and many other states as it makes annual migrations to Mexico but conservationists warn that habitat destruction and climate change are threatening the iconic black and orange monarch butterfly. Local naturalists say that we can help by planting more of the plant that will feed their offspring.