WOOLLY MILKWEED
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| File Size: 139 KB |
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Asclepias lanuginosa Nutt.
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| Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, McPherson County, Kansas |
| Perennial |
| Height: 3-8 inches |
| Family: Apocynaceae - Dogbane Family |
| Flowering Period: May, June, July |
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| Stems: | | Plants pilose, not glaucous; sap milky. Stems spreading to ascending, simple. | | Leaves: | | Alternate, simple; petiole .04 to .16 inch; blade lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 1.2 to 3.2 inches long, .4 to .8 inch wide, margins entire, apex acute to rounded. | | Inflorescences: | | Terminal, umbel-like cyme, 20-60-flowered. | | Flowers: | | .3 to .37 inch x .1 to .14 inch; calyx lanceolate, .06 to .12 inch; corolla pale greenish yellow or greenish white, sometimes tinged purple, lobes 5, reflexed, elliptic-lanceolate, .16 to .22 inch; hoods 5, greenish white, erect, .1 to 1.3 inch, margins entire, apex rounded; horns absent; gynostegium sessile, .04 to .06 inch tall. | | Fruits: | | Follicles narrowly spindle-shaped, 3.2 to 4.4 inches long, .4 to .6 inch wide, smooth, sericeous to pilose; seeds obovate, ca. .2 inch; tuft of hairs at tip white, 1 to 1.2 inch long. | | Habitat: | | Tallgrass, mixed-grass, and sand prairies; sandy to rocky, often calcareous soils. | | Distribution: | | Central 1/5 of Kansas - rare | | Origin: | | Native | | Comments: | | Asclepias lanuginosa, is very rare. Specimens have been collected in Douglas, McPherson, Republic, and Saline counties. Asclepias, for Aesculapius, Greek god of medicine, and lanuginose, woolly. Asclepias was formerly treated as Asclepiadaceae rather than Apocynaceae. |
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| Woolly milkweed flowers |  | | 98 KB | | Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, McPherson County, Kansas |
| | Woolly milkweed inflorescence |  | | 103 KB | |
| | Woolly milkweed |  | | 136 KB | | Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, McPherson County, Kansas |
| | Woolly milkweed |  | | 83 KB | | Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, McPherson County, Kansas |
| | Woolly milkweed leaves |  | | 136 KB | | Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, McPherson County, Kansas |
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