The lifecycle of the lowly milkweed plant is a wondrous thing. Asclepias curassavica, commonly known as scarlet milkweed, tropical milkweed, blood flower and Mexican milkweed, starts life attached to ...

Milkweed is the host plant for butterfly enthusiasts who want to attract monarch butterflies. When the monarch discovers the milkweed, she lays her eggs on it. Once the eggs hatch, the small ...

Thousands of seeds are floating across fields this month, like tiny paratroopers dangling from silky parachutes. They're milkweed seeds, launched from ripe seed pods. If they land on target, new ...

Also known as oleander aphids, milkweed aphids are not native to North America; they originated in the Mediterranean region. In their native land, these aphids primarily fed on oleander plants, but in ...

The Perennial Plant Association has named butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), as its 2017 Perennial Plant of the Year. With much focus on pollinator habitat these days, butterfly milkweed is a ...

Most gardeners recognize milkweed immediately as a butterfly attracter, but there’s a complex community that revolves around this prolific plant that extends well beyond the monarch. Milkweed may ...

When oleander aphids infested tropical milkweed, monarch butterflies laid fewer eggs on the plant, and the caterpillars developing on those plants were slower to mature. Many gardeners will tell you ...

Oliver Hernandez 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 a leaf. Across the Midwest ...