Milkweed is rapidly disappearing from our landscapes primarily because homeowners consider it an ugly, invasive weed and VDOT poisons it regularly alongside the roads.
There is one place, however, where milkweed is flourishing, and that’s on golf courses.
Well, not on the fairways and short grass, but in places where a golfer really shouldn’t be – like the rough and the edge of the woods. Art Stiphel and I played at Lake Monticello yesterday and the first thing I noticed along the fairways was an abundance of milkweed. Some of it had gone to seed and was being blown into the air with gentle gusts of wind where it will hopefully settle, take root, and make new milkweed plants.
As everyone knows, monarch butterfly populations are seriously threated and one of the few things that can save them from extinction is milkweed. Monarchs lay their eggs on only one plant – milkweed. Without milkweed, there will be no more monarch butterflies.
Kudos to all the golf courses for holding off on the weed spray and to homeowners who plant and allow milkweed to grow.