Red veins in Milkweed leaves

[Farfalla]

Just wondering if the red veins that I see on the leaves of my common milkweed are significant? The egglaying seems to have slowed down in my milkweed patch.......

[Teresa]

Sure you don't have dog bane instead of common milkweed? they look an awful lot alike.

[Farfalla]

Hi Teresa..Nope. I am positive. I have raised 10 healthy Monarch caterpillars on it. It's Common Milkweed ,alright. It's just this week that it has started to develop the red color down the center vein.

[Jim]

It's not unusual for common milkweed to have a mid-vein that is pinkish to deep red in color, though I don't know what causes it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ascl ... yriaca.jpg

[Farfalla]

Thanks, Jim. So I guess if it normal... it probably has nothing to do with the decreased rate of female visitors.
I'll just have to keep checking it

[John Beaulieu]

The common milkweed seems to be quite variable. I posted a photo last year showing a red-stemmed plant and it appears that it is simply one of the varieties of common milkweed.

I had be questioning about this because we find very few eggs and caterpillars on the red-stemmed plants. In the last two years since becoming more involved with monarchs, I have been paying more attention to the milkweeds as well. I find common milkweeds that have very long leaves, oval leaves, and round leaves. Some have red veins, some have red stems and others are all green. They look like they are almost different species, but they are all common milkweed. They are not one of the other species found in Canada. In some cases it may be a regional variation or perhaps a result of the type of habitat.

John

[Farfalla]

I have never seen red stems before! The whole idea of Monarch butterflies preferring certain types of Milkweed over others is fascinating. I guess if Milkweed is plentiful they can afford to be more particular! Thank you for posting those pictures, John.

[John Beaulieu]

Yes, there is lots of choice in most of the patches so they can be choosey. The only time we found a caterpillar on the red-stemmed, they were the only variety in that patch. I think monarchs choose the green for egg laying because it seems a little more tender, with the red-stemmed seeming to be tougher leaved. In my garden with many species available, they skip the butterfly weed (A. tuberosa) since it has a much tougher leaf (they will feed at the flowers just as often, though).

John

[monarchmama]

I have orange butterfly weed, common milkweed, and what appears to be swamp milkweed but was sold to me as ice ballet asclepsis, but turned out pink and red instead of white. I have only seen eggs laid on the butterfly weed once and have never seen any larvae on it. Last year when the majority of my milkweed was the narrow leafed swamp milkweed I saw plenty of eggs on the plants and used it to raise some of my babies. But by and far the wild monarchs in my area seem to prefer the common milkweed. Now that my batch of it has expanded this year they definitely prefer it over the other two, and the females will invariably lay eggs on the common and will only switch to the other types of milkweed when the common gets too old and dry to support young larvae.
Kept in containers when I am raising them, they eat the common milkweed down to bare bones before they will go to the other.
just my observation!

[Pat]

We have common, swamp, and tropical in several varieties here and it doesn't seem that the females care about which species of milkweed it is so much as where it is. As the sun moves across the yard, so does the egg-laying.