“My Career is OVER” – Defamed Tropical Milkweed Takes an
Exclusive Interview with Houston’s Native Plant Society
After a long run as the horticulture industry’s most popular milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, commonly known as Tropical Milkweed, has toppled from grace with a tarnished reputation. Articles coming out left and right detail Tropical’s negative influence on the Monarchs, such as persuading America’s most-beloved insect to skip out on migration, increasing the likelihood of succumbing to the protozoan parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE). The Monarchs’ adoring fans demand answers and accountability. We reached out to Tropical for a chance to set the record straight and give a juicy behind-the-scenes peak at life in the industry.
Thank you for interviewing with us here at Wilescapes today.
Thank you, I’m glad to be here.
Several of Monarch’s fans are calling for your termination and elimination from butterfly gardens. Do you think this is fair?
Nothing about this has been fair. I have a binder of evidence detailing the abuse I’ve witnessed in the horticulture industry. Nobody has asked me if I’m okay.
What kind of abuse did you witness?
Well, for one thing, I was never asked to be brought to North America. My native range was originally the Caribbean, South and Central American, north to Mexico. I have a great relationship with the Monarchs there. I was kidnapped and brought to a facility that sprayed pesticides all over us. Now people criticize me for not dying back in the winter, but I’m doing my best to be a good nectar and host plant. My career is over, because of one mistake.
Was the transition to North America difficult?
I faced challenges like any plant, but I adapted and was quickly recognized as a showstopper in the garden.
What would you say to your critics who are calling for your removal?
Look, I don’t go dormant in the winter, because it’s not in my DNA. No one can change me or make me be something I’m not. I’m not from here, and I don’t own the rulebook for how to behave in the garden.
Experts are saying you disrupt the migration and reproduction of Monarch butterflies.
It’s every gardener’s own responsibility to cut me down every year in the fall and ensure I don’t escape cultivation.
How is your relationship with our Houston native milkweeds A. viridis, A. tuberosa, A. incarnata, A. perennis, A. verticillata, and others?
People who know me know I don’t work well with others. Even my best friend Lantana camara would describe me as intense. To all my haters calling me a noxious weed, if you want something well-behaved go with the natives.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
If you can get a commercial nursery to stock the natives, bring it on!
That concludes our interview with Tropical Milkweed. Stay tuned for our upcoming response from her cousins Green and Aquatic!
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"They can't get enough of us!" Native Milkweeds Spill the Tea
This interview is a response to the previous interview. After our chat with Tropical Milkweed, we had to know more about natives. We tracked down Houston-native milkweeds Green and Aquatic to tell us everything about their lives, from fitness tips to their relationships with the Monarchs.
Welcome back to our readers. Today we have with us two of Houston’s most-adored native milkweeds: Asclepias viridis, also known as Green Milkweed or Antlelopehorn, and Asclepias perennis, known as Aquatic Milkweed. Thank you for joining us.
Green: Thank you for having us.
Aquatic: We are honored to be here.
Walk us through a day in the life as a native milkweed.
Green: I grow in pastures, ditches, and along roadsides. Like all milkweeds, I’m toxic to humans and animals, but your cattle already know that. I’m deciduous, which means I don’t do much but sleep all winter.
Aquatic: I am also a deciduous perennial, and I can be found in swamps, floodplains, and wetlands. I tolerate moist soils, but I am also drought tolerant once I establish. We bloom from spring to fall, and we set fruit called follicles. Each follicle contains seeds that are carried by comas, or clusters of silky white hairs.
What are your native ranges?
Green: I can be found in prairies from Texas to Kansas east to West Virginia.
Aquatic: My range starts at the Gulf of Mexico, tapers at Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and ends at Indiana and Illinois.
What was life like as a seedling?
Green: I had to wait until the moisture and light was right. I like sunshine and plenty of water when I first sprout. I really don’t like being transplanted, so I have to start from seed.
Aquatic: As soon as we are big enough to be found by Monarch butterflies, they lay their eggs, which hatch into caterpillars. We don’t mind. We are specially adapted to feed the Monarch caterpillars and will come back stronger.
Do you remember anything about your ancestors?
Aquatic: Milkweeds’ namesake is our latex, a milky substance that exudes from damaged cells. This latex contains cardiac glycosides, rendering us poisonous to most animals and giving the Monarchs their bright orange coloration and toxicity to predators.
Green: Our latin name, Asclepias refers to the Greek god of healing. Humans and milkweeds go way back, from the Lakota tribe, which used me to treat children’s diarrhea, to World War II when our floss was used to stuff life vests.
Do you have any distinguishing features?
Green: Besides what we already mentioned about our latex and comas, milkweed blooms are umbels, clusters of short flower stalks.
Aquatic: I can be identified by the pink tips of my corolla before my flowers open.
Tell us about your role in the urban butterfly garden.
Aquatic: Milkweeds are the only host plants for Monarch butterflies, and the only food source for Monarch caterpillars. Our blooms are also a source of nectar for mature butterflies and other pollinators.
Green: Monarch populations are steeply declining due to habitat loss and pesticides, but if you plant plenty of milkweed in your garden, you’d never be without them. Monarchs won’t be the only ones who flock to your garden either. Several other species use our nectar from Swallowtails to skippers, and other pollinators too like bees and moths. They can’t get enough of us!
Aquatic: Other insects also feed on our foliage, for instance the Red Milkweed Beetle and the Milkweed Tussock Moth. Monarchs particularly rely on migratory “waystations” that provide plenty of sustenance for adult butterflies to continue on their route.
What should a gardener do when they see aphids on you?
Green: I’m glad you brought that up. Aphids can become a nuisance to other plants, but not to us. We don’t mind them as long as we remain in good health. In fact, they actually attract beneficial insects like ladybugs and braconid wasps.
Aquatic: This is yet another advantage of planting milkweed: we will help balance the ecology of your garden ensuring a stable population of aphid predators. If you see aphids on your milkweed plants, you may leave them be. Please never use pesticides on us!
What is the most exciting thing about being a milkweed?
Green: I would say that first day I get to come home with a gardener and see my new garden home!
Aquatic: Every day is a blessing, and I am just grateful to be part of the cycle of life.
That concludes our interview with Aquatic and Green Milkweed. Please let us know which Milkweed you will be adding to your garden. Best of luck in your butterfly gardening adventures!
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