Woolly milkweed

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Woolly milkweed leaves

Woolly milkweed inflorescence

Woolly milkweed flowers

Woolly milkweed

Woolly milkweed

Woolly milkweed

Morphology

Stem

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.

Inflorescence

Terminal, umbel-like cyme, 20-60-flowered.

Flower

.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.

Fruit

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.

Ecology

Habitat

Tallgrass, mixed-grass, and sand prairies; sandy to rocky, often calcareous soils.

Distribution

Central 1/5 of Kansas - rare

Additional Notes