Monarch Butterfly caterpillars are very picky eaters.
They only eat milkweed plants.
They won't eat broccoli, green beans or even corn!
If you could eat only one thing all your life,
what
would you pick?
The tricky thing is: if there are no milkweed
plants, then the female (mother) butterfly has no place to lay her eggs.
If she lays her eggs on lettuce leaves, the monarch caterpillar has no food. It may hatch from the egg. But it never develops and dies.
In one or two years of no milkweed plants,
there would be no monarch butterflies!
That is why I grow many milkweed plants in my yard
and gardens.
I even planted a bunch in the habitat
garden at a school.
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