Monarch Trust NZ Forum » Plants

Asclepias curassavica ?weed ?Monarch food

(5 posts)

  1. wanderer
    Member

    I have come across two types of milk weed previously unknown to me - Asclepias curassavica both a red and a yellow. The woman who was growing them advised they were weeds in Australia but good for Monarch caterpillars. I already grow a number of the common swan plants for my butterflies, but am not sure whether I will be planting a potentially noxious weed if I grow these new plants? I am also unsure how much they will be appreciated by my caterpillar population. Anyone know? Thanks

    Posted 2 months ago #

  2. Pepetuna
    Key Master

    No, Asclepias curassavica is not a weed - in fact the Monarch Butterfly New Zealand Trust sells the seed (see Shop on this website). I have found A. curassavica grows well, and there is a lot of leaf-matter per plant, which is what hungry caterpillars need ;-) Caterpillars thrive on both Swan Plant and A. curassavica. The only thing to watch for is that once a batch of caterpillars has been started on one type of plant, they may not be willing to change to another. I found that caterpillars raised on A. curassavica would rather starve than eat Swan Plant. Not sure whether this happens the other way round or not.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  3. Bernie
    Member

    Hi Wanderer. I live in GB where there are no native asclepias plants but I have been fascinated by the monarch and have been raising them for about 25 years.
    Currisavaca is grown and sold as a garden plant here and I would think it is the most favoured foodplant for those of us that raise monarchs here. At one stage ,in my previous house, I was growing 18 different species of milkweed and never found any problem with allowing the cats to transfer from one species to another. It's a bit like home where I just have to eat what my wife puts in front of me!

    Posted 2 months ago #

  4. nzwings
    Member

    im having a different problem all together, i purposely planted the swanplant for the chance to breed lesser wanderers..i have no interest in monarchs personally, all the fuss is all about them, to be honest our red admiral is a much more amazing sight i find personally. but anyways forget my issues with it haha i find that i have the monarchs here in masterton very picky. they seem to choose the commonly grown milkweed more over the tropical yellow and red milkweed, and i wonder why that is?!? because you would think that with its purpose of reproducing that it would use any source possible to keep going. that is the case with monarchs they really are not that fussy considering a few of our native species who are fussy where they lay their eggs

    Posted 2 months ago #

  5. Jacqui
    Key Master

    Hello Zac

    There has been some research done recently about A. curassavica and a Monarch's Oe burden. I'm rushing right now, but am sure you'll find some information about it on our website somewhere...

    That might be part of the answer perhaps?

    Posted 2 months ago #

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