Despite
raised eyebrows from visitors, milkweed plants grow in my
garden and even in the lawn. That's because in late summer
they are host to beautiful monarch eggs, which hatch into
jazzy green, white and black caterpillars.
Recently
I brought an armful of fresh-cut herbs into the kitchen and
was startled to find a monarch caterpillar hanging nearly
motionless from a basil leaf. I quickly set the plant stalk
upright in a vase and checked in on the caterpillar throughout
the evening.
Over
the course of several hours, the caterpillar transformed from
its hanging "J" position into a melon green chrysalis adorned
with sparkling gold speckles near the rim. Over the next two
weeks I began to see the characteristic orange and black coloration
of the wings through the increasingly translucent chrysalis.
After 14 days, I woke up to find a limp monarch adult hanging
where the chrysalis was.
I
set the plant stalk with butterfly attached, on the deck.
It took a couple of hours for the butterfly to pump fluid
into wings, and for the wings to stiffen.
By
10 am, it was gone. My "house guest" was probably a non-reproductive
insect, meaning it won't mate until next year. Instead it
will embark on an amazing, 2000-mile journey.
Averaging
50 miles a day, late summer monarchs head south to a wintering
ground that individual insects have never seen. Scientists
are still trying to determine how they navigate.
If
you happen to be along the shores of Lake Michigan this month,
you might see monarchs flying south. Monarchs don't fly in
flocks, but they do require appropriate winds, temperatures
and humidity to fly long distances. So, when conditions are
right, you might see hundreds of them moving south.
It
wasn't until 1975 that scientists discovered forested mountaintops
outside of Mexico City, Mexico where clusters of thousands
of monarchs cling like papery leaves in the trees throughout
our winter. They rarely fly, since nectar sources on the mountain
are scarce. In spring, the monarchs begin to fly north, mate,
lay eggs and die. Each new generation flies farther north.
5
Reasons to let milkweed grow in your yard
