Guests at Seasons can see the insects in metamorphosis and order food, drinks inspired by butterflies
At most restaurants, having crawling or flying bugs around your table would be a bad thing. But at Carlsbad’s, a butterfly garden has been planted at the center of its dining patio in the hope of attracting migrating monarchs to the spot during their summer migration.
The collection of tropical and native milkweeds was planted in the restaurant’s raised garden a few weeks ago. Soon after, distinctively striped monarch caterpillars could be seen inching their way along the plants’ leaves and beginning to spin themselves into their chrysalis, the hanging pods in which they metamorphose into a butterfly.
The goal of planting the garden, and the butterfly-themed food and drink items the restaurant is creating for its happy hour menu this summer, is to raise the public’s awareness about the decline of the monarch species. People can help restore monarch numbers by planting native milkweed plants in their backyard gardens during the spring and summer months. Monarch butterflies eat a variety of pollinator plants, but milkweed is the sole diet of monarch larvae.
A green monarch butterfly chrysalis hangs from the underside of a leaf, center left, in the butterfly garden at Seasons Restaurant in Carlsbad.To purchase the appropriate milkweeds, many with eggs already laid on their leaves, and train the restaurant’s staff about the monarch life cycle, the Four Seasons worked closely with Pat Flanagan, owner ofFlanagan is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cultivate and sell native Carlsbad narrow leaf milkweed plants unique to this region.
According to Butterfly Farms, the migratory Western monarch butterfly population has been in sharp decline over the last 20 years. That decline has been attributed to various sources, including the gradual loss of breeding habitats, herbicides and extreme weather events, such as rising temperatures, heavy rains and drought.
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