northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's an interesting member of the milkweeds, part of the dogbane family . It's a Butterfly Milkweed (AKA Butterfly Weed ). This milkweed is known for its small but bright orange flowers; when in bloom they're pretty easy to spot. They do have a taller relative, the Fewflower Milkweed which is technically in New Jersey but I'm not sure I've ever seen one [1]. A lot of times you can verify that a plant is a milkweed (or dogbane) by breaking a small part of a leaf; if you see a white sticky latex-like substance oozing out, you've got a milkweed (or dogbane). This stuff is what makes milkweeds poisonous and makes the Monarch caterpillars that eat it poisonous too. Butterfly Milkweed doesn't really ooze this substance. My understanding is that Monarch caterpillars can/will eat Butterfly Milkweed but won't become poisonous like their relatives who feed on other milkweed species [2].  Though their flowers are small, they are considered to be fairly prolifi...