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Milkweeds native to Texas are difficult to find in nurseries.
(A viridis)
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center wants to change that by working with interested folks to responsibly collect seeds from milkweeds growing along the Monarch’s Texas migration path. These seeds will be grown to increase the volume of native milkweed seed available to local growers and thereby increase the native milkweed plants for the Monarch Butterfly.
Demand for native Texas milkweed has been increasing in response to widespread publicity about the threat to the survival of the Monarch. Until recently milkweed was common along roadways and in fields, but this is changing. Conservationists have been urging gardeners to plant milkweed in home gardens, but nurseries do not have a supply of the plant. Growers have found native milkweed difficult to grow.
According to Susan Prosperie, Propagation Specialist at the Wildflower Center, “we’re still in the planning stages of this project so if you would, please hold off collecting seed until we can put some more specific directions together on how to collect, where to collect, and where and who to send the seeds to.”
Susan added, “An ideal population for a conservation collection will contain at least 175 individual plants. If we can collect one follicle from each of 35 individual plants (20%) in that population, we can capture most of the genetic diversity of the population without causing the population to decline. Seed most needed for our region include but aren’t limited to Asclepias asperula, A. oenotheroides, A. tuberosa, and A. viridis. If you collect Asclepias seed to join us in this effort please include your name and contact information as well as the GPS coordinates of where you collected and the date of collection. If GPS isn’t available to you the closest intersection, nearest town, and the county should be included.”
If you decide to help in this endeavor please abide by our Collection Policy. You may find this guide helpful to identify milkweed species and this guide useful for seed collection.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: Bill Hopkins
