Caterpillar hosts for Monarch

87 native plants its caterpillars eat, most recorded first.

Not native to the US

6 plants, most recorded first.

Nativity unknown

23 recorded only to genus or family, or with no nativity on record.

Swamp Milkweed

for Monarch

Open

Caterpillar hosts · recorded

What the records say

Eats · as larvae 62 records
- iNaturalist 59 records
  
  iNaturalist community observations of species interactions.
- Hale et al. 2024 3 records
  
  Hale, Kayla R. S. and Curlis, John David and Auteri, Giorgia G. and Bishop, Sasha and French, Rowan L. K. and Jones, Lance E. and Mills, Kirby L. and Scholtens, Brian G. and Simons, Meagan and Thompson, Cody and Tourville, Jordon and Valdovinos, Fernanda S. (2024). A highly resolved network reveals the role of terrestrial herbivory in structuring aboveground food webs.
Read by a rule · 3 records

These expert lists include butterflies' nectar plants, so outside a butterfly's host plant families their entries count as flower visits.

Read by a rule · 2 records

A butterfly photographed feeding on a plant, with no life stage given, is almost always an adult at the flowers, unless the plant is one its caterpillars eat.

Read by a rule · 1 record

A host plant noted for an adult butterfly, outside the plant families its caterpillars eat, means the butterfly was at the flowers.
References
- Kayla R. S. Hale (Expert)
- Jordon Tourville (Expert)
- Brian G. Scholtens (Expert)
- iNaturalist observation 9481394
- iNaturalist observation 91427994
and 57 more
Hosted by · as larvae 5 records
- Ferrer-Paris et al. 2013 3 records
  
  Ferrer-Paris JR, Sánchez-Mercado A, Viloria ÁL, Donaldson J (2013) Congruence and Diversity of Butterfly-Host Plant Associations at Higher Taxonomic Levels. PLoS ONE 8(5): e63570. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063570
- HOSTS (NHM caterpillar host plants) 1 record
  
  Gaden S. Robinson; Phillip R. Ackery; Ian Kitching; George W Beccaloni; Luis M. Hernández (2023). HOSTS (from HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants) [Data set resource]. Natural History Museum. https://data.nhm.ac.uk/dataset/hosts/resource/877f387a-36a3-486c-a0c1-b8d5fb69f85a via Natural History Museum (2023). Data Portal query on 1 resources created at 2023-05-24 11:19:42.032183 PID https://doi.org/10.5519/qd.bsucrxdz
- iNaturalist 1 record
  
  iNaturalist community observations of species interactions.
References
Lays eggs on · as larvae 2 records
- iNaturalist 2 records
  
  iNaturalist community observations of species interactions.
References
- iNaturalist observation 92730339
- iNaturalist observation 54473437
Visits flowers of 875 records
- iNaturalist 874 records
  
  iNaturalist community observations of species interactions.
- Center for Plant Conservation pollinators 1 record
  
  National Database Plant Pollinators. Center for Plant Conservation at San Diego Zoo Global. Accessed via https://saveplants.org/national-collection/pollinator-search/ on 2020-06-05.
References
- National Database Plant Pollinators. Center for Plant Conservation at San Diego Zoo Global. Accessed via https://saveplants.org/national-collection/pollinator-search/ on 2020-06-05. Accessed at <https://github.com/globalbioticinteractions/cpc-pollinators/archive/a64674001b3fce1c5a4896d8c29b4bcb024e6f0b.zip> on 14 Jul 2026.
- iNaturalist observation 98010251
- iNaturalist observation 9715499
- iNaturalist observation 96309505
- iNaturalist observation 95556436
and 842 more
Visits 115 records
- iNaturalist 115 records
  
  iNaturalist community observations of species interactions.
References
and 110 more
Pollinates 6 records
- Pollinators of Apocynaceae Database 5 records
  
  Ollerton J, Liede-Schumann S, Endress ME, Meve U, Rech AR, Shuttleworth A, Keller HA, Fishbein M, Alvarado-Cárdenas LO, Amorim FW, Bernhardt P, Celep F, Chirango Y, Chiriboga-Arroyo F, Civeyrel L, Cocucci A, Cranmer L, da Silva-Batista IC, de Jager L, Deprá MS, Domingos-Melo A, Dvorsky C, Agostini K, Freitas L, Gaglianone MC, Galetto L, Gilbert M, González-Ramírez I, Gorostiague P, Goyder D, Hachuy-Filho L, Heiduk A, Howard A, Ionta G, Islas-Hernández SC, Johnson SD, Joubert L, Kaiser-Bunbury CN, Kephart S, Kidyoo A, Koptur S, Koschnitzke C, Lamborn E, Livshultz T, Machado IC, Marino S, Mema L, Mochizuki K, Morellato LPC, Mrisha CK, Muiruri EW, Nakahama N, Nascimento VT, Nuttman C, Oliveira PE, Peter CI, Punekar S, Rafferty N, Rapini A, Ren ZX, Rodríguez-Flores CI, Rosero L, Sakai S, Sazima M, Steenhuisen SL, Tan CW, Torres C, Trøjelsgaard K, Ushimaru A, Vieira MF, Wiemer AP, Yamashiro T, Nadia T, Queiroz J, Quirino Z. The diversity and evolution of pollination systems in large plant clades: Apocynaceae as a case study. Ann Bot. 2019 Jan 23;123(2):311-325. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcy127. PMID: 30099492; PMCID: PMC6344220.
- Center for Plant Conservation pollinators 1 record
  
  National Database Plant Pollinators. Center for Plant Conservation at San Diego Zoo Global. Accessed via https://saveplants.org/national-collection/pollinator-search/ on 2020-06-05.
References
- Robertson 1891
- Rafferty and Ives 2011 & unpublished
- Kephart 1979, Betz et al.1994
- Ivey et al. 2003
- Betz, R.F., Struven, R.D., Wall, J.E. & Heitler, F.B. (1994). Insect pollinators of 12 milkweed (Asclepias) species. In: Proceedings of the thirteenth North American Prairie Conference. Department of Parks and Recreation, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. pp. 45?60
Interacts with 528 records
- iNaturalist 521 records
  
  iNaturalist community observations of species interactions.
- Ecdysis 4 records
  
  Ecdysis: a portal for arthropod collections data.
- Encyclopedia of Life text mining 2 records
  
  A. Thessen. 2014. Species associations extracted from EOL text data objects via text mining.
- Msu Msuc 1 record
  
  The Albert J. Cook Arthropod Research Collection
References
- A. Thessen. 2014. Species associations extracted from EOL text data objects via text mining. Accessed at <https://github.com/EOL/pseudonitzchia/archive/e5838965a186fba4b7215cd0d179c4526773bad5.zip> on 13 Jul 2026.
- iNaturalist observation 95655941
and 520 more