Milkweed and Monarchs in the Wilderness Park

The Johnson's Pasture area of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park supports two species of milkweed – Asclepias fascicularis (Narrowleaf Milkweed) and Asclepias eriocarpa (Woollypod Milkweed), and as you can see from our observations, these species are visited by Monarchs as well as other critters, including Crotch's Bumble Bee, tarantula hawks, milkweed longhorn beetles, and milkweed bugs – both big and little.

The Friends of the Wilderness Park have been discussing with the City of Claremont and the California Botanic Garden, the possibility of seeking funding to improve the habitat in Johnson's Pasture for the milkweeds and the pollinators who love them.

To help establish a baseline, we are trying to accumulate as much data as we can about the location and abundance of the two milkweed species as well as many observations as possible of Monarchs of any stage, as well as other pollinators. We are also interested in learning what other flowering plants in the park Monarchs might use for nectar sources.

If you'd like to help, you can:

  • Keep an eye out for monarchs and milkweed, and make observations! You can always, of course, report them on iNaturalist, but it would be great if you could also report monarch and milkweed observations on the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper, especially from July 23 – August 1, which is the 5th International Monarch Monitoring Blitz.
  • Look for any other insects on the milkweed, and report them to iNaturalist. We are especially interested in any observations of Crotch's Bumble Bee, which is a California Endangered Species Candidate.
  • Participate in systematic mapping of milkweed (for which we will be using Calfora ) and helping to set up and implement the Integrated Monarch Monitoring Protocols. If you are interested, please message me @nvhamlett.

Have fun looking at monarchs and milkweed!

Posted on Ιούλιος 23, 2021 0334 ΠΜ by nvhamlett nvhamlett

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