Recent genetic analysis of the evolution of monarchs suggests that Danaus plexippus originated in the southern United States or northern Mexico from a common ancestor millions of years ago, which initially undertook a shorter-distance annual migration in that region. However, around 20,000 years ago the migration of milkweed (Asclepias), a rhizome root  plant and monarch’s host organism, to northern territories generated a more extended migration of monarchs and consequently the differentiated generations (Monarch Generations Map) and the migrant monarch habitation in the Oyamel Forest in the winter and the plains of the U.S. and Canada in the summer and fall (Zhan et al. 2014).

This genetic analysis confirms the complete tuning of the monarch's annual migration to the migration of a rhizome root plant, an entwining that adds a layer of complexity to understanding monarchs through a theory of speciation as they rely completely on their relationship with a so called ‘weed’ that has also migrated across North America. Thus, this research stream thinks with milkweed and its current presence and absence within the North American landscape. This line of research proposes that the monarch conservation rhizome goes beyond milkweed roots; it stretches from cyberspace to milkweed roots.