{"id":13435,"date":"2016-04-12T14:38:44","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T19:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=13435"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:28:15","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:28:15","slug":"in-the-weeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=13435","title":{"rendered":"In the Weeds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
A yellow-and-white striped Monarch butterfly caterpillar munches on the leaves of a milkweed plant at the UNC-Chapel Hill North Carolina Botanical Garden.
(photo by Amanda Faucette)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

E<\/span>ach spring, the black-and-orange monarch butterfly lays hundreds of sesame seed-sized eggs on the leaves of milkweed plants. About four days later, a baby caterpillar small enough to fit on the head of a needle escapes from its shell. It eats its own egg shell and then rigorously chomps away at the milkweed leaves and grows quickly, shedding its skin each time it enters a new instar, or life stage. After attaching to a nearby twig, the caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis and two weeks later emerges as a beautiful butterfly. The process begins\u00a0again.<\/p>\n

Within the last decade, deforestation of overwintering sites (where monarchs migrate in the winter) in Mexico and California, severe temperature drops, excessive rain, and the decline in milkweed have caused population numbers for this iconic butterfly to plummet. \u201cBiologists got a wakeup call in 2013 and 2014 when they saw a 90 percent decline in the monarch population in Mexico,\u201d Damon Waitt, director of the North Carolina Botanical Garden<\/a>, says. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about going from 1 billion monarchs to just a few\u00a0million.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, President Barack Obama issued a presidential memorandum<\/a> on pollinator health in regard to both the declining monarch and honey bee populations \u2014 honey bee pollination alone adds more than a $15 million value to the nation\u2019s agriculture industry. The Botanical Garden has taken action by growing thousands of common milkweed, which monarchs rely on for growth at the larval\u00a0stage.<\/p>\n

The public cares a lot about these butterflies, but perhaps not so much for the milkweed they depend on. Milkweed has gotten a bad rap for being a pesky plant that overgrows its welcome, so, oftentimes, it\u2019s sprayed with pesticides. \u201cFarmers want to get rid of it,\u201d Johnny Randall, director of conservation programs at the Botanical Garden, says. \u201cBut, mostly, I think land conversion \u2014 for range, for farming, for housing development \u2014 plays a big role in milkweed loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The milkweed-monarch\u00a0dynamic<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two years ago, the U.S.<\/span> Fish and Wildlife Service<\/a> awarded a grant to the Botanical Garden to grow 7,200 milkweed plants. Conservation botanist Amanda Faucette, who\u2019s leading the project, has grown mostly common milkweed because of its resiliency. This species of milkweed is rhizomatous, meaning it grows an underground stem that creates larger patches of the plant. \u201cAnd it\u2019s very tolerant of general human activities,\u201d Randall laughs. \u201cIt tolerates disturbances like mowing and burning. If you plowed it up, it would probably spread\u00a0more.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also packed with protective toxins that make monarchs unappetizing to predators, which also explains why they\u2019re so colorful. \u201cIt\u2019s called Mullerian mimicry,\u201d Randall says. \u201cThat\u2019s when an animal has very contrasting colors. It\u2019s meant to be an obvious warning sign not to consume them. It doesn\u2019t work for mammals very well since they don\u2019t see color, but birds, for the most part, avoid them after they have sampled a\u00a0couple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monarchs have adapted so heavily to sequestering this toxin that it\u2019s the only plant they can consume. \u201cThere have even been studies where researchers monitored female monarchs laying eggs on other plants in the same plant family and the caterpillars ended up dying after a very short period of time,\u201d Faucette says. \u201cEven though there are other plants in that family with similar toxins, it\u2019s not the\u00a0same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only do the monarchs require milkweed as a host plant, but the milkweed needs the monarchs for pollination. Monarchs pollinate hundreds of other plants as well, particularly flowers that are colorful, grow in clusters, remain open during the day, and feature flat surfaces for the butterflies to land\u00a0on.<\/p>\n

Generations of\u00a0effort <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Botanical Garden protects milkweed at various sites around Chapel Hill including Merritt Pasture within the Morgan Creek Preserve and at the Mason Farm Biological Reserve. Its partnership on this project with the U.S.<\/span> Fish and Wildlife Service comes to a close this April, but the potential for a partnership with North Carolina State Parks<\/a> looks\u00a0promising.<\/p>\n

Common milkweed doesn\u2019t occur naturally in state parks within the eastern United States \u2014 and North Carolina State Parks wants the Botanical Garden to grow more appropriate milkweed species for them. \u201cMilkweed naturally grows at the Mason Farm Biological Reserve, but we\u2019re also planting it there, which means it will have enough milkweeds to be considered a seed increase site,\u201d Randall explains. \u201cThat means we will be able to get seeds from our own property now to supply others who want to grow their own plants, rather than have us grow them\u00a0all.\u201d<\/p>\n

More milkweed not only means more monarchs but more migration. Like birds, monarchs migrate thousands of miles each year. But it takes several generations for them to successfully disperse throughout North America. \u201cThat\u2019s why we need relatively continuous milkweed populations,\u201d Randall says. \u201cIt takes several generations to go north and then one generation comes back. But, really, they are important pollinators in both\u00a0directions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Damon Waitt is the director of the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Before coming to Chapel Hill in January 2015, he worked as the senior director and botanist of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin,\u00a0Texas.<\/em><\/p>\n

Johnny Randall is the director of conservation programs at the North Carolina Botanical Garden and adjunct professor in UNC<\/span>\u2019s Curriculum for the Environment and Ecology, a multidisciplinary degree program in the College of Arts and Sciences that seeks to foster an understanding and appreciation of ecological systems and future environmental\u00a0problems.<\/em><\/p>\n

Amanda Faucette is the conservation botanist for the North Carolina Botanical\u00a0Garden.<\/em><\/p>\n

The North Carolina Botanical Garden, a unit within UNC<\/span>-Chapel Hill, has been a leader in native plant conservation and education in the Southeastern United States for more than 40 years. It furthers the university\u2019s mission of teaching, research, and public service through its own mission: To inspire understanding, appreciation, and conservation of plants in gardens and natural areas and to advance a sustainable relationship between people and\u00a0nature.<\/em><\/p>\n

By Alyssa LaFaro, Endeavors magazine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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To help restore the monarch butterfly population, the North Carolina Botanical Garden has joined a nationwide effort to grow milkweed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-sciences-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47678,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13435\/revisions\/47678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}