{"id":16642,"date":"2025-08-04T18:57:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T01:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=book&p=16642"},"modified":"2025-08-04T18:58:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T01:58:01","slug":"the-milkweed-lands-an-epic-story-of-one-plant-its-nature-and-ecology","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/book\/the-milkweed-lands-an-epic-story-of-one-plant-its-nature-and-ecology\/","title":{"rendered":"The Milkweed Lands: An Epic Story of one Plant, its Nature and Ecology"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe milkweed is a displaced citizen in its own land.\u00a0 Where once it owned the continent, it\u2019s now a kind of vagrant, occupying the botanical equivalent of homeless encampments.\u201d\u00a0 With this quote, author Eric Lee-M\u00e4der introduces \u201cThe Milkweed Lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

This engaging book, richly illustrated by Beverly Duncan, is focused on Asclepius<\/em>, a genus with over 90 species in North America.\u00a0 While perhaps most famous as a food source for monarch butterflies, the author expands that perception to see milkweeds as an essential part of many different ecosystems.<\/p>\n

\"\"This story begins with the winter blizzards of the northern prairie ecosystem of the United States and Canada.\u00a0 Underneath the snow an incredible amount of life continues.\u00a0 This includes the roots of the milkweeds and the various insects, fungi, small mammals and other creatures surviving and even thriving.\u00a0 Exploring this world down to the cellular level, this could be heavy-going, but Lee-M\u00e4der has a light touch, making these complex scientific principles quite easy to understand.<\/p>\n

The story continues into the other seasons, in part featuring restoration efforts in California\u2019s Central Valley.\u00a0 Here hedgerows often shelter Asclepius<\/em> species that have been eliminated on the adjacent farmlands or orchards for their weedy qualities.\u00a0 Other plants and animals, often also deplored by humans, find their homes here, too.<\/p>\n

Reviewed by: Brian Thompson on May 20, 2024<\/p>\n

Excerpted from the Summer 2024 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe milkweed is a displaced citizen in its own land.\u00a0 Where once it owned the continent, it\u2019s now a kind of vagrant, occupying the botanical equivalent of homeless encampments.\u201d\u00a0 With this quote, author Eric Lee-M\u00e4der introduces \u201cThe Milkweed Lands.\u201d This engaging book, richly illustrated by Beverly Duncan, is focused on Asclepius, a genus with over 90 species in North America.\u00a0 While perhaps most famous as a food source for monarch butterflies, the author expands that perception to see milkweeds as…<\/p>\n

Continue reading The Milkweed Lands: An Epic Story of one Plant, its Nature and Ecology<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[],"class_list":["post-16642","book","type-book","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book\/16642"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/book"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/book"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=16642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}