#NativePolinators

@nesfarm.bsky.social

1 month ago

I had a tumble 😫

I'm okay but I fear the most of this winter sowing won't be as it was surface sow

Stupid foot, stupid ice

#WinterSowing #NativePolinators #GardenSky ❄️

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Vanessa 🍁

@nesfarm.bsky.social

4 months ago

Text copied of original post from another social media site, link to study at the bottom A graduate student examined which nectar plants are best for monarchs Hi everyone - I just finished going through a thesis of a Masters student at Univ. of Ottawa that was recently uploaded by the university, and I'll provide a quick note about it here. As I mentioned at the outset, the student had performed some experiments to see which plant species provides the most value to ADULT monarchs. The student had placed adult monarchs in cages, both inside and outdoors, along with different species of nectar plants. The student then weighed the monarchs after a week, plus examined how much fat was inside the monarchs (back in the lab). This is an oversimplification for brevity. The results of this are in the graphs below. Of the six plant species examined, two stood out as providing the most bang for the buck, in terms of the mass of the monarch, plus, the amount of fat in the monarch - solidago (goldenrod) and echinacea. Interestingly, butterfly bush was one of the worst. Another interesting point - the plant that monarchs most visit in that region, according to naturalist sightings, is Symphyotrichum ericoides, or White heath aster, yet that plant did not provide the best nutrition. This shows how we really should not be relying solely on "which plants we see monarchs on" to determine which ones are important. There was much more to the thesis. Collectively, these findings are of importance in terms of supporting and conserving the fall migration, as they give some concrete data on which plants should be conserved/planted, especially in the northern regions. link to the online thesis - https://ruor.uottawa.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/ac586637-91a3-45a6-869c-ac6fd308a920/content

Thesis posted by the UofO studying adult Monarch butterfly weight & fat gain based on available plants

As we've long now known, butterfly bush (budlia) is junk food

This also shows they prefer white aster, but echinacea (coneflower) & goldenrod are best

More in alt

#NativePolinators #GardenSky 🦋