MonarchButterfly_ComplicatedWorld_Glassberg_Jeffrey_MorristownNJ_8May2023_Reel4152.mp3

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:00:00] I love milkweeds. They're great plants. All of them. I mean, seriously. I mean, I'm being serious. I love milkweeds. Have nothing to do with monarchs. I like the milkweeds.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:00:09] But the main milkweed that monarchs use in eastern North America is common milkweed, Asclepius syriaca.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:00:21] And Asclepius syriaca is a very weedy plant. By that, I mean it thrives, it does best, in disturbed habitats.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:00:34] And the best information I see, that I can find, people have published about this and, you know, and this is not my field of expertise, if I even have a field of expertise. But this is not it.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:00:47] But, the best information I can see is that people say that, prior to Europeans converting large areas of the Midwestern prairies to agriculture, prior to that, there was little, if any, Asclepius syriaca, common milkweed, in these prairies. And that's the main caterpillar food plant now for monarchs. There are other milkweeds. There certainly are other prairie milkweeds, but I don't think their density is all that great.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:01:19] So, I don't have any doubt there were monarchs that were there before Europeans did that. But, I do suspect that there weren't the kind of huge, huge millions that we had 30 years ago, before that. I think that the Europeans, by converting it to agriculture, greatly increased the number of monarchs.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:01:45] It just raises questions.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:01:46] I mean, so I think that's what happened.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:01:48] How you end up feeling about it, whether you feel like, well, even though we created this situation, we want to perpetuate it because it's spectacular or whatever.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:01:58] But the world is a complicated place. That's all.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:02:01] For most people, it's either black or white. That's, that's the only thing that they get. Monarchs are going out and we have to save them, and we have to plant milkweeds, or whatever.

Jeffrey Glassberg [00:02:08] The real world is, is more complicated.