Luckily, there are several species of milkweed that they can use, and all these milkweeds have cardenolides in them.

Some were toxic, including the tropical milkweed, with very high concentrations of these cardenolides.

In the first types of experiments, we had caterpillars, and gave them a choice: medicinal milkweed versus non-medicinal milkweed.

Can the mothers lay their eggs on medicinal milkweed that will make their future offspring less sick?

What we find is that the monarchs strongly prefer the medicinal milkweed.

In other words, what these females are doing is they're laying 68 percent of their eggs in the medicinal milkweed.

But what these experiments tell us is that these monarchs, these mothers, can lay their eggs on medicinal milkweed that will make their future offspring less sick.

These milkweed plants have grown up in my meadow over the last four years.

Milkweed in sentence

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