What I’m showing here is a little bit of garden magic and what was left after a whole lot of hungry visitors came by.
My Tropical Milkweed leaf isn’t “damaged." It has been expertly eaten.
When I planted milkweed, I knew I had invited one of nature’s most famous guests: the Monarch butterfly. Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed because it’s the only plant their caterpillars can eat.
Once those tiny caterpillars hatch, they get right to work. They don’t nibble around the edges. Instead, they chew straight through the softer parts of the leaf. What starts as tiny pinholes quickly turns into larger openings as they grow and their appetite increases.
It may look a little rough on my plant, but Milkweed is resilient. The best part is that somewhere nearby, if they made it, one of those tiny leaf-munchers may be quietly hanging in a chrysalis, getting ready to return to my garden with wings.
Bravo for helping Monarch butterflies!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting to learn that Monarch Butterflys go thru Three Entire Generations to reach their Migration Destination, and then Three more Entire Generations to go back... how that even computes is Mind Blowing to me.
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