Did you know that Kansas City is also a significant hub for monarch butterfly migration?
Every year from September through early November, monarch butterflies travel from Canada to Mexico and pass through the United States. As these creatures travel thousands of miles, impacted by climate change, as habitats shrink due to human activity, it’s amazing how resilient and adaptable they are. They persevere and keep going.
KC plays a big role in monarch butterfly migration. For survival, they depend on milkweed, which grows abundantly in the area.
Spotting Monarch Butterflies
While walking our Crossroads Westside Urban Hike, you might spot some of them. We’ll stop by the Butterfly/Rain Gardens at the Tony Aguirre Community Center, planted by the Westside Community Action Network. These gardens provide a habitat for butterflies and other important insects to our ecosystem. As part of the University of Kansas’s Monarch Watch Program, the gardens are also an official Monarch Waystation.
Don’t worry if you don’t see a monarch during their migration! In Kansas City, you can still see some beautiful murals featuring their beauty thanks to the work of local artists.
Murals with Monarchs in Kansas City
New to the West Bottoms, this mural was painted in late spring of 2023. Located at 1309 West 9th Street, it runs along the 9th Street Viaduct. The piece was painted by the artist team Evolution 816 as part of the 9th Street Garden expansion by the Historic West Bottoms Association.
The 215-foot wall features recognizable symbols of the West Bottoms area, including the first building in the district and the influence of Native American culture in the area.
There are also 14 Monarch butterflies on the wall to represent the 14 League Titles and Negro World Series Championships won by the Kansas City Monarchs. It is reported that the name of the team, formed in 1920, is derived from that of an earlier semi-pro team in Kansas City named after its sponsor the Monarch Printing Company, which was derived from the monarch butterfly.
You can see other odes to the KC Monarch baseball team throughout Kansas City including this mural by artist Alexander Austin which is located on Grand Blvd in Downtown KC.
Westside Mural with Monarchs
If you are exploring the Westside, you’ll find that these vibrant murals painted in September of 2023 make the exterior walls of the newly built Mattie Rhodes Cultural Center come to life. They were designed by Jessica Manco and painted by Rodrigo Alvarez and Isaac Tapia of Itra Icons.
Native Plants and Butterfly Mural, River Market
This KCNPI (now Deep Roots) native plant mural found at 2nd and Main was painted by Amanda Gehin and can be seen on the way to the Town of Kansas Bridge. It can be seen on our River Market Urban Hike. After contacting the artist, Amanda, to learn more about it, she shared the following: “It demonstrates three specific host plant relationships between Missouri native insects and Missouri native plants. Insects in the order Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) sometimes depend on only a few or in some cases, a single genus of plants to survive. For example, the monarch butterfly caterpillar can only feed on plants in the genus Asclepias (milkweed). Without milkweed, there would be no monarch butterflies.” – Amanda Gehin
As you can see the monarch butterfly’s influence on Kansas City is not passing! These murals and the growing number of butterfly/rain gardens celebrate the monarch butterfly’s natural habitat in Kansas City. They are reminders of the importance of preserving nature.