Why Tropical Milkweed Harms Monarch Butterflies

Milkweed plants can be beneficial for endangered monarch butterflies as they serve as the exclusive hosts for developing caterpillars, but the variety grown in garden matters. Tropical milkweed is a hearty and showy variety with spectacular flowers that is easy to grow and found readily at nurseries big and small. Unfortunately, the nurseries and producers only have their profit in mind when they sell you this deceptively harmful plant.

On the contrary, native milkweed species such as the Narrow Leaf Milkweed, are less showy and they lose their leaves in the late fall and winter. When their leaves drop they don’t die, they just become dormant according to a natural cycle. This is good because the leaves of these plants host a pathogen that infects and kills all life stages of monarch butterflies. Unfortunately, the tropical milkweed varieties don’t lose their leaves and the pathogens increase to the point of epidemic proportions, quickly infecting monarch butterflies and caterpillars eventually leading to their deaths.

The solution to the problem is to completely remove tropical milkweed in your garden. So before you plant that milkweed make sure you know whether it is doing more harm than good.