ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION OF NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE SPECIES OF MILKWEED IN VARIANT SOIL CONDITIONS

Milkweeds (genus Asclepias) are the host plants for caterpillar stages of milkweed butterflies (subfamily Danianae), notably the monarch butterfly, Danaius plexippus (Linnaeus). Loss of suitable habitat and host plants threaten monarch populations. For my thesis research, I examined artificial propagation of milkweed plants, specifically the effects of three different soil substrates and exposure to hormone powder on the survival rates of cuttings from two milkweed species, A. tuberosa rolfsii and A. curassavica. Fifty-four cuttings of each species were transplanted to substrates of a mixture of peat moss and perlite, only peat moss, and potting soil. Half of each of the groups of cuttings were exposed to rooting hormone powder. A binomial logistic regression model was developed to determine the significance of each of the independent variables in the likelihood of survival of any individual cutting. The model specified had an 84.3% accuracy in correctly predicting the survival of the cuttings. This experiment may offer insights on the best environment for the propagation of native species of milkweed, which could be beneficial in the development of more native habitats for monarch butterflies in Florida.