As you walk along Gallery Road and pass the meadows surrounding Jeff Koons’s, Split Rocker, 2000, you can’t help but notice that amongst the kaleidoscope of purple, yellow, and green are slashes of bright orange. These are the flowers of Asclepias tuberosa, butterfly weed. Standing only 1-3 feet tall, Asclepias tuberosa is shorter than other types of milkweed but still shares with them the unique chemical relationship that ties milkweeds with monarch butterflies. In addition to butterflies and moths, butterfly weed attracts hummingbirds and other beneficial insects like ladybugs and lacewings.

–Tim Curley