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Western Monarch Day
"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
A tartan made from this striking design will certainly attract the eye of a passing monarch butterfly (or keen-eyed lepidopterist)! With their striking orange and black wings, monarchs are one of the most recognizable of butterflies and one of nature's most remarkable voyagers! Each fall, these butterflies undertake a journey of thousands of miles from the cooler climates of North America to the warmer overwintering grounds of central Mexico, a feat that requires multiple generations to complete. This incredible navigational feat relies on a complex combination of environmental cues, including the sun's position and the earth's magnetic field! Western Monarch Day is a holiday established by the California State Legislature as there are several annual stopping points during their journey where they can be admired and appreciated as they rest and cluster on eucalyptus and Monterey pines:
Pacific Grove, also known as "Butterfly Town", Monterey County
Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo County
Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County
Goleta, Santa Barbara County
Morrow Bay
If you would like to assist Monarchs in their travels, planting native milkweeds in your garden, provides food for caterpillars, while adult butterflies feed on a wide variety of nectar-bearing flowers and even on rotten bananas, oranges, and mangoes! 🦋 🧭 🧡 🖤 🥭 🍌 🍊
By designer Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan reflects the brilliant colors of the Western Monarch butterfly.
The Western Monarch (Danaus plexippus) may be the most familiar North American butterfly, with its easily recognizable black, orange, and white wing pattern.
The North American monarch population is notable for its annual southward late-summer/autumn migration from the United States and southern Canada to Mexico. During the fall migration, monarchs cover thousands of miles, with a corresponding multi-generational return north.
Monarchs have even been transported to the International Space Station and bred there.
In both caterpillar and butterfly form, monarchs are aposematic - warding off predators with a bright display of contrasting colors to warn potential predators of their undesirable taste and poisonous characteristics.
Monarchs are foul-tasting and poisonous due to the presence of compounds from milkweed ingested during their caterpillar phase.
Monarchs share the defense of noxious taste with the similar-appearing viceroy butterfly in what is perhaps one of the most well-known examples of mimicry. Though long purported to be an example of Batesian mimicry, the viceroy is actually reportedly more unpalatable than the monarch, making this a case of Müllerian mimicry.
Flight of the Butterflies is a 2012 Canadian documentary film covering Dr. Fred Urquhart's nearly 40-year-long scientific investigation into the monarch butterfly, tracking the details of what is considered one of the longest known insect migrations, the flight of the monarch butterfly from Central Mexico to the United States and Canada and back.
To see a stunning trailer for this beautiful film, click the Monarch!