Not including animals like the bald eagle or Eastern bluebird, the monarch butterflies have garnered much interest in people.

What role does milkweed play in the life of a butterfly? “Milkweed is a host plant for monarchs, meaning it is the only plant a monarch will lay its eggs on,” Fulton explained.

Monarch butterflies rely on milkweed plants to survive. To help out your local pollinators, consider these free and low-cost ways to get your hands on seeds.

These beautiful butterflies have a reason for laying their eggs on milkweed plants. When the larva, or monarch caterpillar, emerges from its egg, it starts to eat the milkweed plant right away.

Milkweed is the only host plant of monarch butterflies, meaning it’s the only plant on which monarchs will lay eggs and eat. Milkweed also provides a food source for many other pollinators.

Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed plants. (Cassi Holcomb) Holcomb’s favorite species of milkweed is the Swamp Milkweed, which she said smells like bubblegum.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is encouraging wildlife enthusiasts to help Monarch butterflies ...

In 2020, around Thanksgiving, a total of fewer than 2,000 monarch butterflies were counted at around 250 overwintering sites where they have traditionally been counted in the state of California.

Monarch butterflies lay their eggs only on milkweed plants -- a wildflower that's essential to their life cycle. But agriculture and herbicide use have made wild milkweed harder for monarchs to find.

There are three types of milkweed where monarchs lay eggs. Common milkweed, which is invasive, and swamp milkweed and butterfly weed, which are not. “It’s considered a native plant.

Monarch butterflies lay their eggs only on milkweed plants -- a wildflower that's essential to their life cycle. But agriculture and herbicide use have made wild milkweed harder for monarchs to find.