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Lower Delta Partnership

Protecting the lower Delta's natural resources and heritage. Enhancing the lower Delta's economic and environmental health

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Monarch Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly Feeding on Tropical Milkweed

Danaus plexippus

The host plant for monarchs, several varieties of milkweed, contain cardenolides and cardiac glycosides, bitter-tasting chemicals that  could cause congestive heart failure in vertebrates.  By eating these toxins and storing them in their bodies, they are vile tasting to birds. Birds quickly learn to avoid the caterpillars and orange and black butterflies.

Monarchs are famous for migrating to warmer climates when the weather cools.  They winter in the high mountains of central Mexico. In the summer, the move north into North America.

Butterfly Size: 3 3/8 – 4 7/8 inches

Habitats: Found in many open habitats including fields, meadows, weedy areas, marshes and roadsides

Plants for the Monarch Butterfly

HOST PLANTS

  • Varieties of milkweed  – Asclepias spp.
  • Butterfly weed is one of these

FOOD PLANTS

  • Many flowering plants and trees
  • Some of these are: lantana, zinnias, abelias, vitex
  • Monarch butterfly on zinnias
    Monarch butterfly on zinnias
  • Lantana
    Lantana
  • Butterfly Weed
    Butterfly Weed

Video about Monarch Migration

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Looking Back at Mont Helena by Cristie Travis

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WHAT WE DO

Mississippi’s Lower Delta Partnership promotes and enhances the economic and environmental health of Mississippi’s Lower Delta.

We provide educational workshops and cultural programs; community and youth activities; encourage heritage, cultural, and nature tourism in our region; and act as an advocate for the South Delta.

Filed Under: Butterflies

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