Oliver Hernandez, of Overland, Kansas, poses with a common milkweed plant in his front yard in 2020. A tiny, young monarch caterpillar and even tinier monarch eggs are visible on the underside of ...

They’re not bad to look at, either. By Margaret Roach To see a field of common milkweed in midsummer — a sea of a thousand nodding pink flower heads — you would not imagine that anything ...

A monarch caterpillar and a milkweed beetle munch on common milkweed in Ginger Werp's garden in Overland Park, Kansas last summer. (Courtesy of Ginger Werp) Common milkweed is an essential plant ...

The study of 450 local milkweed patches found that several strategies were associated with finding more monarch eggs: planting common milkweed, having milkweed that’s at least 5 years old ...

Monarch butterfly populations have been crashing as well. An obvious response is to plant more milkweed, but common milkweed, which grows to be five feet high and spreads by rhizomes, can quickly ...

But Mackinac State Historic Parks personnel planted about 400,000 common milkweed plant seeds at the east end of Mackinac Island State Park airport in November, seeking to create crucial habitat ...

It tolerates light shade, but generally prefers full sun. According to the USDA, common milkweed is “nature’s mega food market for insects.” There are more than 450 insects known to feed on ...

Changing and falling leaves are a sure sign of fall, and so are milkweed seed pods starting to dry out in preparation of being harvested. Milkweed is the only host plant of monarch butterflies ...

About a third of the yard looks like a teeny swath of prairie, with wild indigo, bee balm and, until recently, a key plant for monarch butterflies: common milkweed. Last fall, the city of Overland ...