While hiking the nearby prairie a couple of years ago, I came across this beautiful “weed”, with a single flower bud just open, and tons of buds awaiting their turn. This “weed” is a Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) and is a very worthwhile plant to have in your flower garden. It is a colorful plant, with flowers ranging from pink to lilac in color, and are very fragrant. But most importantly, this flower is a wonderful butterfly magnet! And our endangered Monarchs flock to this plant. On this particular morning, this single flower really captured my attention as the single, open bud was standing proudly above the rest of the buds:
In my new butterfly garden I started last year, I have made room for adding some Common Milkweed, as well as some other species of milkweed … as soon as the soil warms and spring hits my rural Missouri home!
In a followup post, I’ll share some images of some of the many species of insects that are attracted to this wonderful wildflower.
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 7D body
- Canon EF 180mm, f/3.5 macro lens
- Bogen 3221 Tripod, with ballhead
- ISO 500
- Aperture f/3.5
- Shutter 1/1,000 second