Pamela Moresby
This is a type of Milkweed, someone told me that it was originally from South Africa. You can get one with yellow flowers or orange red flowers…
The Monarch caterpillars eat it and the Butterflies love it.
Watch out for the white sap in the Milkweed it can actually burn your skin and it is poisonous. Monarch Butterflies consist of poison but they have to be clever how they eat the leaves as a caterpillar or it will kill them. They can only eat a little at a time but they stem the flow of the sap by clever means.
We have lots of milkweed int he US but nothing like this. Reminds me on Lantana.
Thanks Carol, yes you are right it does look like lantana /
they’ve adapted to eat these toxic plants so they become toxic themselves and as such they have no natural predators…
Actually they do have natural predators it is amazing they survive. Praying mantis kills them, Paper Wasps kill them. Spiders kills them….Those are 3
okay, but birds won’t eat them. mantises and wasps are jerks, they kill anything they can…
So true, that mantises and wasps are jerks…
they really are. just dial it back already…
Great post. I didn’t know about this poisonous juice.
Thanks Vidocka, it is very alkaline.
A wonderful post. I knew almost nothing about the white juice that could be poisoned.
Yes, the white sap is a strong alkali but that is also poisonous.
Milkweed is all over the US. in particular in the middle of the US. The catepillars were all over the milkweed plants.
🙂
Thanks Doc, our New Zealand Swan Plant is a form of Milkweed, and there are some Milkweed plants that are banned from coming to NZ by the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries,,,
Great picture, dear Pamela
Thanks so much Lado……
Yes, that would be true I have not yet seen a Viceroy Butterfly. Thanks Gary.
In the USA we have a butterfly called the Viceroy which looks almost exactly like a Monarch. They use their similarity to the Monarch as protection. Birds which have tried to eat a Monarch won’t do so again. Nor will they eat a Viceroy.