Common milkweed is a native plant that almost everyone knows. It is easily found along roadsides. This plant was growing along Chesnut street at the edge of Anderson Prairie.

Despite its weedy reputation, common milkweed is a vital host plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars. Monarch females will lay a tiny egg on the underside of one of the broad leaves. Other milkweed family plants (Asclepias) can also serve as hosts.

Mowing of roadside ditches, and now, agricultural crops with built-in pesticides threaten Monarchs and the milkweeds upon which they depend.

To add common milkweed to your prairie garden, you must sow the fluffy, parachute-like seeds in the fall. Nature releases the seeds in the fall, so you should too. They need the cold and damp of the winter in order to properly germinate in spring. Seeds kept dry and inside all winter won't fare as well.