Milkweed has such odd looking flowers, but it has such great seeds and seed pods in the fall I love to see it. It seems to grow mainly in the barrow pits and along the shoulders of county roads, where it is subject to mowing. I did not realize it was disappearing, and with it, an essential element in the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly, whose population has declined 90% since the 1990's. With almost a 60% decline in milkweed, and a corresponding 80% decline in Monarch reproduction, there is a push in Nebraska to restore some of the one million acres of natural pollinator habitat that has been lost in the past 10 years. Time to add a bit of milkweed to my garden plot!
