Endangered Weeds

Swan Plant aka Milkweed

Greenfinger and Bluetooth walk around the garden.

Weeds. Milkweed. See? Break the stem and milk comes out.

You’ve got another kind of milkweed over here. Swan plants.

That’s for the butterflies.

Swan plant is also called milkweed. Asclepias fruiticosa. There’s heaps of plants in the Asclepias genus.

Asclepias?

After the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius.

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Voice-over

They name WEEDS after me? 
I'm HONORED.

“Weed” is a subjective expression. Implying something of an invasive nature.

Something invasive can scarcely be called “endangered.”

Is “endangered weed” thus an oxymoron?

To developers unsympathetic to biodiversity, any plant could be a weed.

I propose a new new category to counter the depredations of human commerce.

“Endangered weeds.”

Milkweeds, a big family, 140 described. Noted for nectar, butterfly gardening, flowers. They have a surprising number of human uses too: medicinal, insulation, sweetening, cords, rubber.

…

Butterfly Wreck

A small tragedy. 

See it? Hanging onto the leaf? A butterfly wreck. And here’s part of a wing. Bird strike I think.

What makes you blame a bird?

Cats can’t climb up there. My hypothesis is that the butterfly was feeding on the flowers, and a bird swooped, but didn’t like the taste. Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed, very alkali. Predators don’t like the taste.

Didn’t help that one.

No, the attacker didn’t like the taste, spat him out, but by that time the damage had been done. Death of a butterfly.

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Voice-over

A small tragedy in nature. Pity the butterfly was mistaken for food.  A death in vain. Needless. Not easy persuading everyone that the decline in beautiful species is bad for the planet.

Some butterflies escape with only damaged wings. These can be repaired. There is an instructive video showing how to repair monarch butterfly wings at live monarch.

Not everyone feels butterflies are inconsequential fluttering ephemera. Some attach symbolic significance to them. Others regard them as important scientific phenomena. 

Long live monarchs! Butterflies that is!
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