06/10/2026
Monarch butterfly feeding from a butterfly w**d plant. 🦋
As spring warms into summer, many species of butterflies are frequenting Liberty State Park, including Danaus plexippus, also known as the monarch butterfly. Monarchs are large butterflies which stand out with their bright black and orange wings. Like all insects, they have six legs and three body parts – the head, thorax, or middle, and abdomen, or tail.
Adult monarch butterflies lay their eggs on the leaves of milkw**d plants. Milkw**d contains a toxic property that monarch caterpillars can retain when they ingest the leaves, but it does not harm the caterpillar to eat milkw**d. As the monarch caterpillar and butterfly have very bright, bold coloring, this is usually a sign in nature that they may potentially be toxic.
During the late summer and early fall, monarch butterflies begin a migration from their summer habitats, south to Mexico, where they spend the winter months. Monarch butterfly populations have dwindled over the past several years due to habitat loss and use of herbicides which destroy milkw**d plants. In 2023, the species was classified as Vulnerable. 🌿
One way to help monarch populations is to plant milkw**d seeds will attract not only monarch butterflies, but other species of pollinators as well. The next time you’re in Liberty State Park, stop by the Nature Center and check to see if they have any seeds available for you to help the monarch butterfly! 🦋
📷 Edward Gray
ABOUT 🗽
Liberty State Park opened 50 years ago on June 14, 1976, as New Jersey’s bicentennial “gift to the nation.” Since then, the park has been in a constant state of development and revitalization – transforming areas from an abandoned rail yard and illegal dumping ground into cherished parkland. New Jersey’s first urban state park, Liberty State Park welcomes an average of 5 million visitors from across the country and around the world annually. Through , the park is looking back on the past five decades by highlighting its history, upcoming events, highlights from the nature center, along with the people that have shaped one of New Jersey’s most iconic public spaces.
