“Butterflies used to reproduce on the native plants that grew in our yards before the plants were bulldozed and replaced with lawn. To have butterflies in our future, we need to replace those lost host plants, no if’s, and’s or but’s. If we do not, butterfly populations will continue to decline with every new house that is built.”
― Douglas Tallamy
Milkweeds, the plant genus Asclepias, are most known for being the host plant for monarch and queen butterflies. However, many other species use the plant as a host for their larvae, including milkweed tussock moths, milkweed bugs, and milkweed leaf beetles. In addition, the flowers are important nectar sources for butterflies and moths across various species in addition to many other insects who visit the flowers.
The good thing about milkweed is that there are so many species and each can grow in its own specific habitat. And in Texas that can range from the swamps and bottomlands of east Texas to the Chihuahuan desert and the Great Plains. Just about anywhere you live in Texas you can find a milkweed species growing near you!
The two most common species that most people are likely familiar with because of their prevalence of growing on roadsides, are antelopehorns and green milkweed. These are the species you can find growing along I-35 and I-45 and the ones you’ll most likely find in parks and preserves in the central and eastern portions of the state. The area around I-35 is considered a Monarch Highway, a central flyway for the monarch butterfly’s migratory route from the oyamel forests of central Mexico to southern Canada each year, through about five generations. I’m not going to linger too much on the monarch migration for this essay, mostly because I want to showcase our wonderful milkweed diversity!
In putting this together, I have realized I’ve seen about half of the species found in Texas! I knocked a few hard to get species off when we drove through Amarillo last summer and caught some species more prevalent to the central US but find themselves growing in a few counties in Texas. Re-visiting the photos reminded me of how beautiful the plants can be and how I wish I had the appropriate habitat in my own yard to grow each one!
Now, most people are even more familiar with tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, because it is cultivated in the horticulture trade. I even grew it up until a year or two ago until I began reading reports of how this species is becoming invasive and also disrupting the monarch’s migration. This central American native, and actually probably originally a South American native, is very easy to grow and monarch caterpillars really do love the plant! It’s still a stunning species and I can appreciate it while also realizing I’m likely doing more harm than good by keeping it in my garden, which is why I decided to remove it from our yard. Here I go digressing into monarchs again…
Our native milkweeds usually revive themselves from winter dormancy around mid-March, depending on which part of the state you are in. They will bloom throughout spring and into summer, going to seed in late summer and early fall, and then finally going dormant in late fall. They have very deep taproots, which, once established, makes them very drought tolerant. It also makes them difficult to dig up and transplant elsewhere, which is why it is suggested never to remove one from the wild unless it is for a plant relocation project on a site that is going to be built upon. While not every species has seeds available for the home grower, there are enough species out there at online seed shops that a home gardener can begin experimenting and growing their own native milkweeds in their gardens. So far, we have found aquatic milkweed, A. perennis, to be one of the easier species to grow. And despite its common name, as long as you have a well irrigated garden this species will thrive in it!
What can you do if you have native milkweed growing on your property? Mow around it, for one! Too many people mow down milkweed along roadsides in the spring just when the monarch migration is coming through. Some monarchs will linger and stay around for a few months but if you need to mow, wait until June or July to do it. The plants may regrow and flower again, and you can leave this growing again for monarchs as they make their way back in the late fall, but also for the other species and pollinators who need the plant to survive. Once you see the seed pods opening and seeds blowing on their silk into the wind, you can go ahead and mow once again for winter. If we had more targeted mowing practices in the state and a lot less habitat conversion to crops and development, we would have more milkweed and other plant diversity here.
I should also note that we have quite a few species of milkvines, which are in the same family as milkweeds, Apocynaceae, and maybe one day I’ll write a dedicated essay on their beauty!
If you are reading this in your email, please click through to see the whole post. Substack warned me that I had too many photos and it would truncate in the email!
And now—milkweed eye candy! All of the species I have seen in the wild in Texas!
Further Reading:
+TPWD Identification of Milkweeds in Texas
+Milkweed Pollination: A Series of Fortunate Events
Misti writes regularly at Oceanic Wilderness and can be found on Instagram at @oceanicwilderness. She hosts two podcasts, Orange Blaze: A Florida Trail Podcast, and The Garden Path Podcast.