6. Balloon plant (Asclepias or Gomphocarpus physocarpus): This is a tropical, non-native annual milkweed grown as a garden curiosity, though monarchs feed on it. It is grown for its size — six ...

Monarch butterflies depend on the milkweed plant as the only food source for its larvae, but the monarchs benefit from the ...

The inner pod and the seeds were certainly reminiscent of the other milkweed plants I’ve seen. And I learned that there’s an additional connection: The balloon plant attracts monarch ...

DONNA SAID SHE NOTICED OUT OF ALL OF THE MILKWEED PLANTS ONE ATTRACTED MORE MONARCH BUTTERFLIES THAN THE REST THE NON-NATIVE GOMPOCARPUS FISOCARPUS ALSO KNOWN AS BALLOON MILKWEED, BUT IT’S ALSO ...

Oliver Hernandez, of Overland, Kansas, poses with a common milkweed plant in his front yard in 2020. A tiny, young monarch caterpillar and even tinier monarch eggs are visible on the underside of ...

All milkweed plants — tropical or native — are good for butterflies and other pollinators, right? For the most part, that’s true. However, there is much debate between policymakers and the ...

In the past four months, I’ve become a loyal steward of narrow leaf milkweed. I've got other plants in my backyard, but none of them are as meticulously watched and cared for as this one.

About a third of the yard looks like a teeny swath of prairie, with wild indigo, bee balm and, until recently, a key plant for monarch butterflies: common milkweed. Last fall, the city of Overland ...