This is a WONDERFUL opportunity for your to incorporate plants NATIVE to your area into your pollinator gardens! Check with your state's Native Plant Society to learn more about those amazing native plants and where to get them.
How to share your observations of nectaring monarch butterflies
When you visit the Monarch Nectar Plant Database submission form, you'll be asked a few questions about your observation. Most importantly, we will want to know which plant species you saw the monarch visiting. We will also ask for the location of your observation. If you remember the precise location of your observation and are willing to share it, our new data entry portal has a map on which you can select that location. However, if you prefer, you can simply provide us with the state in which you made the observation, or better yet, the state and the county.
Submit a good photo to help us ID plants and butterflies
When you submit an observation, we seek a photo of the monarch visiting the nectar plant, or a photo of a monarch you've seen plus a photo of the nectar plant species the monarch visited. We will use these photos to verify that the butterfly and plant have been properly identified.
To help with habitat restoration, look for monarchs on native plants
We strongly prefer your observations of monarchs nectaring on native plants rather on exotic plants. We think monarchs, our other native pollinators, and our native ecosystems will benefit more from the restoration of native wildflowers, shrubs and trees that our pollinators have adapted to over thousands of years.
If you do not know if the plant you've observed is native or introduced, we ask you to consider searching for that information at a well-established plant website such as the USDA Plants database or the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center.