{"id":436,"date":"2023-12-03T17:22:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T01:22:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/?p=436"},"modified":"2023-12-03T17:22:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T01:22:49","slug":"ode-to-the-milkweed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/03\/ode-to-the-milkweed\/","title":{"rendered":"Ode to the Milkweed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Who knew how beautiful a plain old milkweed could be?<\/p>\n<p>A couple years ago I recall wondering &#8220;where have all the Monarch butterflies gone?&#8221; \u00a0We used to see them quite often growing up, but I cannot recall now the last time I&#8217;ve seen one. \u00a0Research led me to the milkweed. \u00a0Apparently, the Monarch caterpillar only eat the leaves of the milkweed plant. \u00a0Supposedly, with increased usage of broad spectrum herbicides like glyphosate (aka Monsanto&#8217;s Round-Up), combined with bioengineered crops that are glyphosate proof, the milkweeds that used to grow in amongst crops are being killed off. \u00a0There are probably other reasons as well. \u00a0But the end result is hardly any milkweeds means hardly any Monarch butterflies. \u00a0We live in an arid place, and a most of the land here that grows anything around here is irrigated crop circles. \u00a0I see some milkweed growing along the edges of our local rivers, but not that many. Since the Monarch are migratory, coming up from Central America, they will seek out what remaining areas have the food for their young. \u00a0 Which is not <em>our<\/em> area!<\/p>\n<p>Last year, apparently some milkweed seeds blew in from the Yakima river, which is a few hundred meters from my house. \u00a0They began sprouting this spring amongst my lavender plants, and also in my dad&#8217;s garden where I grow my hot pepper plants. \u00a0Rather than pull them up, I let them grow this time, hoping maybe some Monarchs would stop by. \u00a0While I was disappointed in this, I did grow to appreciate the beauty of this plant, especially its compound inflorescence. \u00a0It is so incredibly beautiful up close, and even from a distance. \u00a0And it smells amazing with a spicy sweet fragrance.<\/p>\n<p>I let these milkweeds grow all summer. \u00a0I even staked them up to help support them. \u00a0And when the seed pods started bursting open, I took them and scattered seeds in the wind.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_435\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/DSC_8092-scaled.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-435\" class=\"wp-image-435 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/DSC_8092-1024x680.jpeg\" alt=\"Milkweed compound inflorescence\" width=\"584\" height=\"388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/DSC_8092-1024x680.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/DSC_8092-300x199.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/DSC_8092-768x510.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/DSC_8092-1536x1020.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/DSC_8092-2048x1360.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/DSC_8092-452x300.jpeg 452w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-435\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Milkweed&#8217;s Compound Inflorescence (Nikon D300)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>If <em>you<\/em> come across milkweeds growing on your land, think twice about pulling them out. \u00a0They are a treat to see and hopefully may one day bring back more of the Monarch butterfly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who knew how beautiful a plain old milkweed could be? A couple years ago I recall wondering &#8220;where have all the Monarch butterflies gone?&#8221; \u00a0We used to see them quite often growing up, but I cannot recall now the last &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/2023\/12\/03\/ode-to-the-milkweed\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature","category-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437,"href":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packdude.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}