This versus episode is a battle of the native wildflowers. Sean leads with penstemon, also known as hairy beardtongue, a charmingly fairytale-looking native perennial genus with species that grow across North America. Points in this plant’s favour: it has few pests and diseases, pollinators love it, and Sean lets us in on the secret to increased blossoms. Also: tube-shaped flowers = hummingbirds and adorably wiggling bee butts. 

Not to be outdone, Erin pushes back with common milkweed Asclepias syriaca, another native perennial that’s important for pollinators and a range of specialist insects, including monarch butterflies. Its sweet-smelling ball-shaped flower clusters seem engineered for human appeal, but this plant’s genes are wild and free. Erin explains what kind of garden space you need to grow them and addresses some common fears about the toxins in milkweed’s sap. And then both our hosts get into The Milkweed Controversy.

Tangents this week include rhizomes, informational websites with no dates on them, the ethics of merch, and the menace of black swallow-wort, a.k.a. dog strangling vine. 

Who won the Plant Face-Off? Was it Sean with beardtongue or Erin with milkweed? You decide! Send your vote by email or on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook with the hashtag #PAWFaceOff. 

Fact Check

We weren’t quite certain, but our memories were right: monarch butterflies are listed as endangered in Canada and, as of December 2024, threatened in the United States. However, it’s also important to know that provinces also have their own systems of classification. In Ontario, the monarch is only a species of “special concern,” which doesn’t come with the protections that “endangered” and “threatened” do.

La Grassa, J. (2024, December 13). Canadian monarch enthusiasts, experts welcome possible new protections for butterfly in U.S. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/monarch-butterflies-southwestern-ontario-1.7407440#:~:text=In%20Ontario%2C%20the%20monarch%20is,receive%20species%20or%20habitat%20protection.%22 

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Credits

Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin

Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays

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Citations

Moving Penstemon from Scrophulariaceae to Plantaginaceae

Gerry. (2016, January 24). Genus Penstemon Moved from Scrophulariaceae to Plantaginaceae. USWildflowers.com Journal. https://journal.uswildflowers.com/2016/01/genus-penstemon-moved-from-scrophulariaceae-to-plantaginaceae/ 

Penstemon Basics:

Hairy Beardtongue. (2025, January 8). Ontario Native Plants. https://onplants.ca/shop/penstemon-hirsutus/ 

TWC Staff. (2023, February 22). Penstemon hirsutus (By The University of Texas at Austin). Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PEHI 

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1998b, July 20). Penstemon | Native, perennial, flowering. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/plant/Penstemon

A Beginner’s Guide to Native Penstemons

Native Penstemons: A Beginner’s Guide. (2024, December 22). The Plant Native. https://theplantnative.com/plant/penstemon/ 

Medicinal uses of Wildflowers

Medicinal uses (By Oregon State University). (2019, March 13). College of Agricultural Sciences. https://agsci.oregonstate.edu/mes/sustainable-wildflower-seed-production/medicinal-uses 

Ellen Zachos, author of the books Backyard Forager: 65 familiar plants you didn’t know you could eat, The Forager’s Pantry: Cooking with wild edibles, and How to Forage for Wild Foods Without Dying: An absolute beginner’s guide to identifying 35 wild, edible plants, and more

Zachos, E. Backyard forager. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https://backyardforager.com/

The David Suzuki Foundation Butterflyway Project

The Butterflyway Project. (2025, January 8). David Suzuki Foundation. https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/butterflyway/

Your local Native Plant Society will have information about the milkweed that grows in your area.

Native Plant Societies. (n.d.). North American Native Plant Society. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https://nanps.org/native-plant-societies/ 

The Xerces Society Milkweed Finder can help you find seeds if you want to grow your own.

Milkweed Finder. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Protection. Retrieved January 8, 2025, from https://xerces.org/milkweed/milkweed-seed-finder

Raising monarch butterflies

Pasternak, Carol. How to Raise Monarch Butterflies: A Step-By-Step Guide for Kids (How it Works). E-book ed., Firefly Books Ltd., 2015. 

The life cycle and migration of monarch butterflies

“Life Cycle”, Monarch Joint Venture, https://monarchjointventure.org/monarch-biology/life-cycle. Accessed 20 November, 2024. 

A close study of milkweed and the species it hosts

Holdrege, Craig. “The Story of an Organism: Common Milkweed”, The Nature Institute, 2010, www.natureinstitute.org/article/craig-holdrege/the-story-of-an-organism-common-milkweed

Timestamps

00:11 Intro

01:04 What’s Growing On?

01:50 Sean’s Puppy Update

02:03 Erin’s New Book

05:00 The Plant Face-Off

05:23 Face-Off Results for Poinsettia vs. Amaryllis

06:30 Sean’s Plant: Penstemon, a.k.a. Beardtongue

06:57 The Reclassification of Penstemon

08:58 The Value of Dates on Research Materials

11:03 Penstemon Species and Ranges

12:19 Penstemon In Your Garden

14:21 Penstemon Pollinators, Featuring Bee Butts

16:38 Learning Medicinal Uses for Plants

19:30 Tending Penstemon

23:58 Erin’s Plant: Common Milkweed

25:56 What is Rhizome?

27:51 National Garden Bureau’s Year Of the Asclepias

28:55 Milkweed Misnomers

30:14 The Destruction of Common Milkweed

31:43 Toxic Sap and Nuanced Conversations

35:09 Would You Eat (cooked) Milkweed?

35:58 When Growing Milkweed Kills Monarchs

39:52 How to Source Milkweed for Your Region

41:23 Saving Monarchs—who, how, and why

46:00 The Problem of Dog-Strangling Vine

48:16 Outro