July 14 Life Abounds in Milkweed Patch

I was riding home from South Madison this evening when I stopped to admire these beauties out in front of the Catholic Multicultural Center. There are three different insects enjoying these milkweed flowers all at once. Monarch butterfly, red milkweed beetles (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus), and a small dark fly at bottom right that I can't identify from the picture. In the surrounding half mile from this plant, there are many native plantings, but all are very tiny compared to prairie and savanna habitat that existed here before European conquest. Nevertheless, this small group of a dozen milkweeds and other plants is playing its role as pollinator habitat and ecosystem connection for these important insects, which play the role of important food source for larger animals. Native plantings on private property is one of the foundation stones of Leopold's land ethic, and this is an example of its potential success.