Butterfly milkweed

[thomas pendrake]

Here in the Eastern U.S. we have a lovely variety of milkweed, Asclepius tuberosa, which not only has beautiful clusters of yellow and orange flowers, but is a vital source of food for the monarch butterfly. The caterpillars eat the leaves, and the butterflies feed on the nectar.plant some of these beautiful plants (if you are in the U.S.) and you will have the lovely flowers and the butterflies! If you are somewhere else, the flowers are still pretty.

 

[claudine]

Milkweed is a great plant! Unfortunately, I've never seen it in my area.

My mother grows something like this in her garden:

I don't know the English name of this plant. In Poland, we call it 'budleja' or 'motyli krzew' (which means 'a butterfy shrub'). Butterflies love it!

 

[thomas pendrake]

took this picture of butterfly milkweed this afternoon at a neighbor's house

 

[Trellum]

My grandma used to grow those, they also seemed to attract not only butterflies, but also hummingbird. Very cool plants actually! I'll surely get some of those for my garden in the future.

 

[claudine]

It's really pretty! Thank you for sharing this lovely picture. Those flowers look like small flames. I like them. Are they fragrant?

 

[JBtheExplorer]

I love Butterfly Weed. I've wanted it for years and finally had some first-year plants this year. When they're old enough to produce seed, I'll use that to plant more of them. Next year I plan on also starting Asclepias ovalifolia and Asclepias incarnata. All are native to my area so when they start producing seeds, I can use them to help wildlife areas and prairies.

View attachment 3776
took this picture of butterfly milkweed this afternoon at a neighbor's house

That looks like Asclepias curassavica.

 

[claudine]

JBtheExplorer, your butterly weed is lovely!
What are those weird insects in the second picture? They look like green wasps to me

 

[JBtheExplorer]

What are those weird insects in the second picture? They look like green wasps to me

You know, I'm not really sure. I see them all the time on flowers but no idea what they are.

 

[claudine]

That's okay. I've just done some research and I think that they're callled 'cuckoo wasps'. I must say that they look quite pretty to me! It's weird, because usually I'm very scared of insects like this.
They remind me of green beetles that live in my area.