Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

COMMON MILKWEED

File Size: 46 KB

Asclepias syriaca L.

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 2 - 5 feet tall

Family: Apocynaceae - Dogbane Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August

Also Called:

Milk plant, wild asparagus, silkweed, wild cotton.

Stems:

Erect, usually solitary, stout, simple, sparsely to densely pubescent.

Leaves:

Mostly opposite, ascending to spreading, broadly egg-shaped to elliptic or oblong, 2.4 to 12 inches long, 2.2 to 4.4 inches wide, firm, sparsely to moderately soft hairy above, finely woolly below; tip blunt or rounded with short, abrupt, sharp point; margins not rolled underneath; on stalks .1 to .6 inch long.

Inflorescences:

Umbels, few to several, 20- to 130-flowered, in upper leaf axils; on stalks .5 to 5.5 inches long.

Flowers:

.4 to .7 inch tall; stalk slender, .6 to 1.8 inch long; calyx lobes 5, lanceolate, .1 to .2 inch long, green to purplish, densely pubescent; corolla lobes 5, elliptic-lanceolate, .25 to .4 inch long, reflexed, rose to purple or rarely white, minutely hairy on the back; hoods ovate, attached near base, spreading, up to .2 inch long, somewhat fleshy, tip rounded, margins with a pair of prominent teeth near the midpoint; horns sickle-shaped, united to lower 1/3 of hood, arching.

Fruits:

Pod, spindle-shaped, 2.8 to 4.4 inches long, .75 to 1.4 inch thick, smooth to densely covered by projections, woolly, erect to ascending on downward-curved stalks; seeds many, broadly ovate, 1/4 to 1/3 inch long, tufted with long, silky hairs 1.4 to 1.8 inch long .

Habitat:

Found along banks of ponds or waterways, roadsides, edges of woodlands, and in open disturbed sites or waste areas.

Origin:

Even though "syriaca" means Syrian, this plant is native to North America.

Toxicity:

All parts of this plant are poisonous to a greater or lesser degree. The shoots were thoroughly boiled with a change of water before being eaten.

Uses:

In the spring, a number of Native American tribes cooked the young shoots and ate them as an asparagus-like food. Common milkweed was also used medicinally by Native Americans.

Comments:

Formerly treated as Asclepiadaceae - Milkweed Family.

Milkweed infloresence