Showy milkweed seedlings1/14/2024 ![]() The seeds of some milkweeds need periods of cold treatment ( cold stratification) before they will germinate. ![]() Because monarch reproduction in those areas peaks in late summer when milkweed foliage is old and tough, A. speciosa needs to be mowed or cut back in June or July to assure that it will be regrowing rapidly when monarch reproduction reaches its peak. įor example, where it grows in Michigan and surrounding areas and in the western US, monarchs reproduce on A. speciosa, especially when its foliage is soft and fresh. Efforts to restore falling monarch butterfly populations by establishing butterfly gardens and monarch migratory "waystations" require particular attention to the target species' food preferences and population cycles, as well to the conditions needed to propagate and maintain their food plants. Monarch Watch provides information on rearing monarchs and their host plants. ![]() It is also a larval host for the dogbane tiger moth and the queen butterfly. Additionally, phenylacetaldehyde produced by the plants attracts Synanthedon myopaeformis, the red-belted clearwing moth. Ecology Īsclepias speciosa is a specific monarch butterfly food and habitat plant. It grows along streams, dry slopes, open woodland areas, and roadsides. This species is native to the western half of North America, including British Columbia and from the Cascade Range in California east to the central United States. Many other species in the genus Asclepias are toxic, particularly to livestock. This species flowers from May through August. The fruit is a rough follicle about 5–10 cm (2–4 in) long and filled with many flat oval seeds, each with silky hairs. Their corollas are reflexed and the central flower parts, five hoods with prominent hooks, form a star shape. The flowers are about 2 cm ( 3⁄ 4 in) wide, hirsute, pale pink to pinkish-purple, and occur in dense umbellate cymes. ![]() Milky sap is released when the leaves or stems are bruised or cut. The pointed, elongate, simple, entire leaves are about 10–20 cm (4–8 in) long and arranged oppositely on stalks. This flowering plant is a hairy, erect perennial growing up to 120 cm (47 in) in height. I'm concerned that these young seedlings will be too small to have a chance of survival.Asclepias speciosa, West Eugene wetlands, OregonĪsclepias speciosa is a milky-sapped perennial plant in the dogbane family ( Apocynaceae), known commonly as the showy milkweed and is found in the western half of North America. ![]() Or, another way to ask the question, is, how large does an asclepius tuberosa seedling have to be to survive a northern winter? My intuition is telling me that the plant would need to be large enough to have stored up enough energy in its root to make it through a long winter. Which is the better plan forward? Should I overwinter them indoors, in a bright window with grow lights, let them grow much larger, and place them outside in the spring? Or, should I leave them outside, to overwinter as tiny plants, with reasonable expectation that most will survive? I don't know how quickly these little plants will grow, but I'm worried that they won't be large enough by the time cold weather comes to survive the winter. The larger ones have multiple sets of leaves, now, and the smallest ones are just emerging in late July. Instead, most of them have sprouted vigorously and I now have numerous, healthy seedlings. I figured they would sprout in the spring. Because I made no attempt to stratify them, I assumed that few if any would sprout, and I would let the cold winter temperatures stratify them naturally. This was in July in zone 6, Pennsylvania. I decided to start about a dozen asclepias tuberosa in small pots, outside. ![]()
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