Monarch on ironweed
Danaus plexippus
Monarch · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 13 August 2026
A Monarch on ironweed's small magenta flowerheads in the August border, wings fully spread. Ironweed is a native perennial of wet meadows across the East, named for its tough, rust-coloured stems rather than anything about the bloom, and reliably one of the last big nectar stops before Monarchs begin the long migration south.
Mid-August puts this individual early in that migratory generation, which unlike its parents and grandparents can live eight months or more and will fly to the mountains of central Mexico.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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