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Monarch's choice of food
Monarch's choice of food
Milkweed is both the host plant for monarch caterpillars and a good source of nectar for monarch butterflies. One reason monarchs eat milkweed is because it makes them poisonous to other animals that may eat them. Monarchs can eat milkweed and not get sick, because they have a mutation that doesn't allow cardenolide (a toxin in milkweed) to affect them.
Common Milkweed
Asclepias syriaca
Swamp Milkweed
Asclepias incarnata
Monarch's preferred milkweed
Monarch's preferred milkweed
Common milkweed and swamp milkweed on average have the most monarch eggs laid on them. This is likely because there is more room on their leaves and more food for newly hatched monarch caterpillars.
Monarch's last resort
Monarch's last resort
Monarchs tend to lay less of their eggs on Tall Green Milkweed, Prairie Milkweed, and Butterfly Milkweed because their leaves are long but too slim to have enough food for the caterpillars. It has also been shown that the average monarch's lifespan is shorter when the eggs are laid on these "last resort" milkweed species.
Why are monarchs attracted to milkweed?
Why are monarchs attracted to milkweed?
Milkweed is both a good host plant for the monarchs, because they can trust, for the most part, that their eggs won't be eaten or destroyed and a good host plant for the eggs the monarchs lay, for the same reason. Monarchs are able to understand that the best chance for their eggs to survive is to lay them on milkweed plants, so they do.
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