This beautiful butterfly with a broken right wing, is one of many that visit my garden in the summer and feed on the nectar of this butterfly bush. I have yet to see the orange monarch butterfly come around our area. While I'm not sure if I ever saw a monarch, I remember seeing the chrysalis (pupa) from which a butterfly emerges, hung from a rare plant my mother tended at home. She had a butterfly garden.
She called the plant Ivory. It gave out a thick white sap when cut but it's white flowers were fragrant and can be strung together as necklace. I have not seen this plant anywhere else. When I was a kid, I stayed away from the plant because the chrysalis and so many of them hung on the leaves of the Ivory, I thought, were housing worms inside their green cocoons or pods. It is only now that I fully understood what they are, after watching the NOVA segment on the migration of the monarchs.
Now I see the connection between my mother's Ivory plant, the chrysalis and the butterfly. The milkweed which also produces a milky juice is an important source of nectar and is the host plant for butterflies. The Ivory and the milkweed plant must have something in common in their sap that draws the larvae of the butterflies. Who knows, the plant which my mother named Ivory could be a species of the milkweed. The monarchs can not exist without the milkweed. There is a magical connection. So, please don't cut down the milkweed from your garden or that vacant lot next to yours.
Originally aired on PBS in January, which I missed, I saw the program about the monarchs last week and was amazed at this phenomenon of transatlantic crossing of these butterflies from Canada to Mexico. It is a natural wonder and almost a miracle. Watch the one-hour program on the PBS website: The Incredible Journey of the Monarchs and see the butterflies soar and glide on their long-distance flight and learn how they survive! If you're unable to view it, the DVD will be available on sale from PBS in April.
Words of wisdom from The Little Prince:
Grown-ups love figures. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters.
They never say to you, "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?"
Instead, they demand: "How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?"
Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943, translated from French
