June 8, 2016

Queen Butterfly and Tropical Milkweed

The Tropical milkweed in Happy Camper Butterfly Garden is doing what it does best—attracting butterflies.


In this case it's a Queen butterfly.


Her mission is to lay eggs on the milkweed, which is flowering and producing seed at the same time.


The milkweed pods are bursting open and revealing the many seeds stacked inside.


Milkweed seeds dance in the breeze for a time and then let go to fly to places both near and far.


I'm sure to find new milkweed plants sprouting in our garden soon and I hope to find little Queen caterpillars, too.

8 comments:

  1. Fascinating. The milkweed blooms all summer in this area, but the seed pods only burst in the Fall. As a child, I did my share of helping the seeds dance in the wind. The little parachutes captured my imagination.

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    1. I love the little parachutes, too! In fact, I was so fascinated by them, I didn't pay much attention to the butterfly after I snapped a couple of pictures of her.

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  2. Hi Tracy, I love the photos you have captured of the milkweed seeds - they are so beautiful. Your Queen Butterfly has amazing markings on her head let alone her wings, I wonder why - is that some kind of camouflage?

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    1. Jules, I don't know the reason for markings. A quick search didn't reveal an answer, though there may be one published somewhere. I think the seeds are beautiful, too.

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  3. I love the photos, especially of the milkweed seedpods. They're so beautiful and elegant. I haven't seen many Queens so far this year, but they usually show up in mid-summer for us.

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    1. Thanks, Tina. This was the first Queen I've seen this year. I hope there are more on the way.

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  4. What a lovely post Tracy, the queen butterfly is pretty in her polkadots and a beautiful photo of the seeds dancing of into the breeze, Frances

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