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Milkweeds a Conservation Practitioner’S Guide

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Milkweeds a Conservation Practitioner’S Guide Milkweeds A Conservation Practitioner’s Guide Plant Ecology, Seed Production Methods, and Habitat Restoration Opportunities Brianna Borders and Eric Lee-Mäder The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation I Milkweeds A Conservation Practitioner’s Guide Plant Ecology, Seed Production Methods, and Habitat Restoration Opportunities Brianna Borders Eric Lee-Mäder The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation www.xerces.org The Xerces® Society for Invertebrate Conservation is a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. Established in 1971, the Society is at the forefront of invertebrate protection, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programs worldwide. The Society uses advocacy, education, and applied research to promote invertebrate conservation. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation 628 NE Broadway, Suite 200, Portland, OR 97232 Tel (855) 232-6639 Fax (503) 233-6794 www.xerces.org Regional offices from coast to coast. The Xerces Society is an equal opportunity employer and provider. Xerces® is a trademark registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office © 2014 by The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation Acknowledgments Funding for this report was provided by a national USDA-NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant, The Monarch Joint Venture, The Hind Foundation, SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, The Elizabeth Ordway Dunn Foundation, The William H. and Mattie Wattis Harris Foundation, The CERES Foundation, Turner Foundation Inc., The McCune Charitable Foundation, and Xerces Society members. Thank you. For a full list of acknowledgments, including project partners and document reviewers, please see the Acknowledgments section on page 111. Editing and layout: Margo Conner and Sara Morris. Printing: Print Results, Portland, OR. Citation Borders, B. and E. Lee-Mäder. 2014. Milkweeds: A Conservation Practitioner's Guide. 143 pp. Portland, OR: The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Photographs & Artwork Cover: front—Seed harvest underway in a milkweed seed production field at the Native American Seed farm in Junction, Texas. Photo: Native American Seed. We are grateful to the many photographers and designers for allowing us to use their wonderful photographs. The copyright for all photographs is retained by the creators. None of the photographs may be reproduced without permission from the creator. If you wish to contact a photographer, please contact the Xerces Society at the address above. Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Milkweed Biology & Ecology 3 Species Diversity and Distribution, page 3 Life Cycle, page 3 Habitats, page 3 Plant Morphology, page 4 Pollination, page 6 Chemical Ecology, page 8 Potential Toxicity to Livestock, page 8 Ethnobotanical, Industrial, and Commercial Uses, page 10 3. The Value of Milkweeds to Wildlife 11 Monarch Butterflies, page 11 Other Butterflies and Moths, page 14 Native Bees, page 14 Honey Bees, page 15 Beneficial Insects, page 15 Vertebrate Wildlife, page 16 4. Milkweed Propagation and Seed Production 17 Wild Seed Collection, page 17 Seed Germination, page 19 Directions for Artificial Stratification, page 20 Stratification, page 20 Additional Seed Treatments, page 21 Other Factors Influencing Germination, page 21 Field Establishment, page 22 Drill Seeding, page 22 Table 1: Approaches to Establishing Seed Production Fields, page 23 Calculating Your Potential Production Field Size, page 24 Transplanting, page 27 Calculating Target Number of Transplants and Size of Planting Area, page 29 Row Spacing and Plant Spacing, page 31 Managing Production Fields, page 32 Identification and Management of Milkweed Herbivores, page 33 Protecting Beneficial Insects from Pesticides, page 33 Monarch Butterflies and Other Lepidopteran Larvae, page 35 Aphids (Aphididae), page 37 Milkweed Bugs (Lygaeidae), page 40 Leaf Beetles (Chrysomelidae), page 43 Longhorn Beetles (Cerambycidae), page 46 The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation V Snout and Bark Beetles (Curculionidae), page 48 Generalist Herbivores, page 49 Plant Disease Diagnosis and Management, page 50 Known Milkweed Diseases, page 51 Bacteria, page 53 Viruses, page 54 Other Organisms, page 54 Abiotic Diseases, page 55 Disease Management Strategies, page 55 Seed Harvesting, page 56 Hand-Harvesting, page 56 Hand-Harvesting with Seed Capture Bags, page 57 Combine Harvesting, page 59 Notes on Additional Harvesting Equipment, page 60 Post-Harvest Instructions, page 61 Seed Processing, page 61 Hand-Cleaning Without Tools or Equipment, page 62 Small-Scale Cleaning with Easy-to-Acquire Tools and Equipment, page 62 Build-Your-Own Small-Scale Cleaning Equipment, page 65 Mechanized Seed Cleaning, page 65 Mechanized Seed Cleaning with Custom Equipment, page 69 Manual Threshing, page 69 Seed Viability, Testing, and Storage, page 70 Milkweed Marketing Opportunities, page 70 5. Using Milkweeds in Habitat Restoration Plantings 72 Sourcing Milkweed Plant Materials, page 73 Case Study: Pollinator Monarch-Friendly Landscaping, page 74 Case Study: Pollinator Hedgerows in Agricultural Landscapes, page 76 Case Study: Monarch-Friendly Roadside Management, page 78 Milkweed Seed Finder, page 79 Selecting Regionally-Appropriate Species, page 80 Establishing Milkweeds from Seed, page 81 6. Conclusion 84 Additional Acknowledgments 85 Appendix I: Milkweed Species Native to the United States and Canada 86 Appendix II: Known Milkweed Pathogens 90 Appendix III: Seed Availability, Seed Count Data, and Growth Characteristics of Several Milkweed Species 91 Appendix IV: Region-by-Region Summary of Milkweed Seed Availability, Priority Species for Use in Habitat Restoration, and an Overview of Monarch Population Dynamics 92 Literature Cited 94 vi Milkweeds: A Conservation Practitioner's Guide 1 Introduction Native milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) are perhaps best known for their role as the larval food plants of the monarch butterfly, their distinctive pods, and their wind-borne seeds. There are also many other fascinating aspects of milkweed biology, ecology, and history, with volumes of research conducted on the plants’ unique pollination process, novel chemical composition, and relationships with insect herbivores. Over 70 milkweed species are native to the United States and Canada. The diverse Asclepias genus encompasses the almost leafless desert-adapted rush milkweed with photosynthetic stems (A. subulata), the aquatic milkweed with seeds uniquely adapted for water dispersal (A. perennis), the serpentine milkweed (A. solanoana) that only grows in magnesium and iron rich soils in a few locations in California and Oregon, and the colony-forming common milkweed (A. syriaca) that plays an indispensable role in the monarch butterfly migration, among others. Ecologists, native plant enthusiasts, and butterfly watchers have long championed milkweeds, but recent monarch butterfly declines are now focusing greater attention on these plants. Specifically, milkweed loss across much of North America is believed to be a major factor contributing to monarch population declines. With agricultural intensification as a significant cause, milkweeds are disappearing on an unprecedented scale (Brower et al. 2012; Pleasants & Oberhauser 2012). Though milkweed loss is difficult to quantify based upon limited historical data, the losses resulting from the expansion of glyphosate- resistant corn and soybean crops in the Midwest have been well documented. Hartzler (2010) showed a 90% decline of common milkweed in Iowa corn and soybean fields between 1999 and 2009. Pleasants and Oberhauser (2012) estimated a 58% decline of milkweed density in the Midwest landscape between 1999 and 2010, with a corresponding 81% decline in potential monarch reproduction in the region. Urban development and aggressive management (e.g., mowing and herbicide applications) of roadside vegetation have also contributed to landscape-level decline of milkweed (Commission for Environmental Cooperation 2008). The future of North America’s monarch migration is now at risk. Both the protection of existing milkweed stands and the restoration of milkweed populations are key components of monarch conservation. Beyond their role in supporting monarchs and a broad diversity of other invertebrate wildlife, milkweeds are part of North America’s legacy of biological diversity and are deserving of conservation efforts in their own right. A key recommendation of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s North American Monarch Conservation Plan is to plant regionally appropriate milkweed species in areas where milkweed is a limited resource. However, commercial sources of milkweed seed are scarce in many areas of the U.S. This limited seed availability is a major barrier to monarch breeding habitat restoration. At a population scale, this lack of host plants results in fewer butterflies returning to overwintering sites in California and Mexico each year. To address this seed shortage and the scarcity of monarch host plants, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation launched Project Milkweed in 2010. The broad objectives of this project are The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation 1 to promote milkweed conservation and increase native milkweed seed availability. In collaboration with the native seed industry, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and community partners, we initiated milkweed seed production in key areas
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