St. Mary of Vernon Catholic Church

If you want to see St. Mary of Vernon's newly certified Wildlife Habitat in action, check out our Swamp Milkweeds, which are magnets to monarch butterflies. The monarchs lay eggs exclusively on milkweeds, which have a toxin tolerated by the monarch caterpillars, but very upsetting to their would-be predators.

We have several Swamp Milkweed plants growing in the moist portion of our prairie garden path. Thanks to seeds donated by Elaine O'Donnell, they are also growing along the edges of the runoff stream leading to the retention pond. As the name implies, swamp milkweeds thrive in wet or moist soil, though they do fine in back yard gardens if the soil is not allowed to dry out. Their nectar attracts a host of different butterflies, bees and other hungry insects.

Bumblebees are fun to watch feasting on the sweet nectar as they clumsily lumber across the flowers, pollinating them as they go. Swamp milkweeds are easily distinguished from other milkweeds by their upright pink flowers and narrow leaves.