Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

FOURLEAF MILKWEED

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Asclepias quadrifolia Jacq.

Cherokee County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 10-24 inches

Family: Apocynaceae - Dogbane Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Also Called:

Four-leaved milkweed.

Stems:

Erect, simple, mostly solitary, slender, glabrous to pubescent in lines extending down from leaf bases; leafless below.

Leaves:

Mostly opposite but with 1-2 whorls of 4 leaves near mid-point of stem; blades lanceolate to ovate, 1 to 5 inches long, 1/2 to 2.8 inches wide, thin, sparsely-hairy on veins; tips long-pointed; stalks 1/5 to 4/5 inch long.

Inflorescences:

Umbels, 1-3, terminal or in upper leaf axils, 4- to 35-flowered, on stalks 1/5 to 1.6 inch long.

Flowers:

1/3 to 1/2 inch tall; stalks thread-like, 3/5 to 4/5 inch long, minutely pubescent; calyx lobes 5, lanceolate to ovate, green to purplish, glabrous; corolla lobes 5, elliptic-lanceolate, 1/5 to 1/4 inch long, pale pink to pinkish-white, bent abruptly downward; hoods narrowly oblong, about 1/6 inch long, white, attached near bases, spreading, with prominent lateral teeth above base; horns short, flattened, sickle-shaped, curved inward, attached to lower 1/2 of hood.

Fruits:

Pod, very slender, 3.2 to 5.6 inches long, 1/4 to 1/3 thick, lacking tubercles, minutely-hairy to glabrous; seeds broadly oval, to 1/3 inch long, tufted with white to tan hairs at tips.

Habitat:

Dry open woods, generally on upland slopes and ridges; chert soils.

Distribution:

Southeast corner.

Uses:

Native Americans used an infusion of the root to treat backaches and venereal disease. They also used the plant as a laxative, rubbed it on warts to remove them, and used fibers from the plant to make bowstrings.

Comments:

Formerly treated as Asclepiadaceae - Milkweed Family.

Fourleaf milkweed flowers