Milkweeds are vital to a monarch’s life cycle. As adult monarchs migrate north from Mexico in the spring, they feed on a variety of nectar-rich flowers, including milkweed. Several generations later, they appear in Teatown’s fields to lay their eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves. The caterpillars remain there, busily munching away until they crawl off to undergo pupation inside a gold-speckled chrysalis. Hence, no milkweed, no monarchs! Life is rough for an organism whose life cycle is so tied to one plant for its survival. As the sole host plant for monarch caterpillars, the relationship between milkweed and monarchs is crucial.