{"id":761,"date":"2013-07-22T14:25:48","date_gmt":"2013-07-22T18:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/?p=761"},"modified":"2013-07-22T14:25:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T18:25:48","slug":"attracting-monarchs-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/attracting-monarchs-in-the-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Attracting Monarchs in the City"},"content":{"rendered":"

The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus<\/i>) population has been declining precipitously<\/a>, in large part because the milkweed plants that the monarch caterpillars feed on are being destroyed. A number of organizations have encouraged the public to grow milkweed in their yards to offset some of this destruction.<\/p>\n

On a November’s day walk through a Southborough field, we collected a few milkweed pods that hadn’t yet released their seeds. I separated the seeds from the cotton and placed the seeds in the refrigerator for a few months.<\/p>\n

In mid-March, I removed the seeds and soaked them in warm water, planting them in a biodegradable tray. It took a while for the seeds to sprout. Perhaps they were waiting for warmer temperatures (our house is rather cool during the winter). The seedlings were up by May and I planted them outdoors on May 6.
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\"Milkweed
Milkweed seedlings<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I was offered some milkweed seedlings from a friend in Litchfield, New Hampshire. These plants grew as a weed in her back yard and were about to be removed. I gladly took them but, even though they bled white sap like milkweeds, I was unable to identify them to species. They had narrower leaves, branched a lot, and new plants sprouted from extended roots. Turns out those plants are not milkweed, but hemp dogbane<\/a> (Apocynum cannabium<\/i>). Hemp dogbane is native and I’m waiting to see if it attracts any insects.<\/p>\n

\"Hemp
Hemp dogbane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca<\/i>) plants, although healthy, were growing slowly. I planted them to create a waystation<\/a> to attract monarchs, but I have a tiny yard on a busy street. They say that if you plant milkweed, the monarchs will come. But would they? I hadn’t seen a single monarch in the yard.<\/p>\n

\"Common
Common milkweed plants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yesterday, I noticed that the milkweed leaves had small holes in them. I took a closer look and saw what looked like a white egg mass near the holes. <\/p>\n

\"Egg
Egg mass, presumably laid by a monarch butterfly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then, voila, I found a couple of baby monarch caterpillars!<\/p>\n

\"Baby
Baby monarch caterpillar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I hope that the caterpillars have enough leaves to munch on. I’ll keep you posted on their development. Thanks to Chris, Betsy, and Carol for the seeds and plants!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population has been declining precipitously, in large part because the milkweed plants that the monarch caterpillars feed on are being destroyed. A number of organizations have encouraged the public to grow milkweed in their yards … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[322,253,234,227,86,321],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":768,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions\/768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}