Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

PRAIRIE MILKWEED

File Size: 77 KB

Asclepias hirtella (Pennell ) Woods.

Cherokee County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 10-50 inches

Family: Apocynaceae - Dogbane Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September

Stems:

Erect, simple or branched. Plants minutely pubescent, not glaucous; sap milky.

Leaves:

Mostly alternate; petiole to .28 inch; blade linear to linear-lanceolate, 2.2 to 6 inches long, .12 to .6 inch wide, margins entire, tip acute to acuminate.

Inflorescences:

Umbel-like cymes, (1-)2-10, usually axillary, 25-100-flowered.

Flowers:

.25 to .4 inch long, .16 to .25 inch wide; calyx lobes lanceolate to triangular, .06 to .12 inch; corolla pale green tinged purple, lobes 5, elliptic-lanceolate, reflexed, .12 to .2 inch; hoods 5, brownish green to green, erect, .06 to .08 inch, margins entire, apex rounded; horns absent.

Fruits:

Pods narrowly spindle-shaped, 2.4 to 6 inches long, .4 to .8 inch wide, smooth, minutely pubescent; seeds ovate, .27 to .35 inch; tufted with tan hairs 1.4 to 1.6 inch long.

Habitat:

Mesic tallgrass prairies.

Distribution:

East 1/4 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

For Aesculapius, the Greek god of medicine, and hirtella, "with short, stiff hairs". Formerly treated as Asclepiadaceae - Milkweed Family.

Prairie milkweed