Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Honeyvine milkweed

HONEYVINE MILKWEED

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Cynanchum laeve (Michx. ) Pers.

Douglas County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: Trailing vine 6 feet or longer

Family: Asclepiadaceae - Milkweed Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August

Also Called:

Sandvine, climbing milkweed.

Stems:

Vine, slender, twining, trailing or climbing on other plants and trees, simple or branched, glabrous or with lines of pubescence; sap milky, sticky.

Leaves:

Opposite, simple, triangular to ovate, 1 to 5 inches long, 1 to 4 inches wide, glabrous; margins entire; tip pointed; base heart-shaped; stalk 1/2 to 3 inches long.

Inflorescences:

Cymes, few to numerous, 5- to 40-flowered, in leaf axils; stalks stout, up to 2 inches long.

Flowers:

Calyx lobes lanceolate, green or purplish; corolla fragrant, white to cream, up to 1/45 inch long; lobes 5, petal-like, oblong to lance-oblong.

Fruits:

Pod, narrowly lanceolate or spindle-shaped, 3 to 6 inches long, .6 to 1.2 inch thick, minutely hairy to glabrous, tubercles absent; seeds many, ovate, flattened, pale brown, tufted with white silky hairs.

Habitat:

Waste areas, disturbed sites, edges of woods, stream banks, gardens, cultivated fields, and roadsides; all soil types but often in calcareous soils.

Distribution:

East 2/3 of Kansas.

Toxicity:

Related African and Australian species are toxic to livestock. North American species are not generally considered a problem.

Comments:

Honeyvine milkweed can be a nuisance weed in no-tilled row crops. It has an extensive root system that diverts moisture and will lower crop yields. It can be dificult to eradicate. The seeds are wind dispersed.

Honeyvine milkweed flowers