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Conserving Karner Blue Butterfly: Plant the Right Lupine! Video

Mondays with Martha #239 - Conserving Karner Blue Butterfly: Plant the Right Lupine!

This week I share something new I learned recently: there's an invasive lupine species, bigleaf lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus), that threatens the habitat of and can act as a dangerous ecological sink for the rare Karner blue butterfly. Learn why it's so important that we plant our native sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis), the only larval host plant for our rare, lupine-dependent butterflies, and how to tell the invasive one from our native species. Be sure to plant the right local lupine species in your own landscapes!

Resources shown and mentioned:

Karner Blue Butterfly | Michigan Thre.

Identifying Native and Invasive Lupin...  

www.fws.gov/species/karner-blue-butterfly-lycaeides-melissa-samuelis

mnfi.anr.msu.edu/species/description/11691/Plebejus-samuelis

www.michiganflora.net/genus/Lupinus

dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Invasives/fact/BigleafLupine

academics.hamilton.edu/biology/ewilliam/publications/PfitschWilliams2009RestorEcol.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Next article Mondays with Martha #238 - Reporting Rare Species Observations

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