[PCA] New Regional Monarch Nectar Plant Guides Now Available

[Matthew Shepherd]

Monarchs are in decline across North America. With milkweed loss in the
east identified as a major contributing factor to this decline, the
national call to action has understandably focused primarily on planting
milkweeds, which are the required host plants for monarch caterpillars. Yet
while restoring the millions of milkweed plants that have been lost is
certainly an important strategy, monarchs need more than milkweed to
support them throughout the year. Adult monarchs need nectar to fuel them
during spring migration and breeding and to build up stores of fat which
sustain them during fall migration and winter.



There are many sources of information about which species of native
milkweeds are best for your region, but information on which nectar plants
are best for monarchs has not been available for large areas of the U.S.
Working with the Monarch Joint Venture and the National Wildlife
Federation, the Xerces Society has created a series of nectar plant lists
for the continental U.S. based on a database of nearly 24,000 monarch
nectaring observations. Each of the 15 regional guides highlights species
that are commercially available, are native to and widely found in the
region, and are known to be hardy or relatively easy to grow in a garden
setting.



Read more about this project on our blog,
http://www.xerces.org/blog/to-save-monarchs-we-need-more-than-just-milkweed/,
or find a nectar plant guide for your region at
http://www.xerces.org/monarch-nectar-plants/.



These plant lists are works-in-progress and benefit from your help. You can
submit additional monarch nectaring observations via our online survey,
https://docs.google.com/a/xerces.org/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfC85E-btqsGSrt16TSAogICzLV2PvOlrID-un-m0jWJpJQkA/viewform?c=0&w=1.




We are grateful to the many different researchers and monarch enthusiasts
across the country who have already contributed to our database—thank you!









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Matthew Shepherd

Communications Director



[image: Xerces-logo-CMYK-email_Outlook]



Protecting the Life That Sustains Us



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