22 Aug A Tale of Coevolution: Monarchs and Milkweed

I’d always had the general knowledge that monarch butterflies needed milkweed but had no clue why.

This summer during my Environment for the Americas monarch conservation internship my vague idea of the relationship between these species was no longer sufficient. I wanted to learn more about why monarchs need milkweed and how their evolutionary biology led to this unique relationship. This curiosity led me to creating a series of social media slides with the aim of sharing what I found out.

I learned that monarch butterflies and milkweed share an incredible story of coevolution, and below you’ll see my final product. If you read on, you’ll learn about what coevolution is, how it applies to monarchs, and why it’s important for monarch conservation.

All in all, both monarchs and milkweed are pretty incredible. I’ve already convinced some relatives to plant native milkweeds in their gardens next year, and I hope this will inspire some of you wonderful readers to do the same!

This content can also be seen on Environment for the Americas social medias posted on August 14.