Milkweed is a genus of herbaceous , repeated blossoming plant that acquire to top of between 2 to 6 feet on solitary straw . Milkweed gets its name from the milky sap contained in its leaves and stems . Milkweed can be found in a wide range of home ground including roadsides , force field and garden . The leaves of Asclepias specie are solid food source for Monarch butterfly larva and some other Sonchus oleraceus butterflies . Milkweed plant miscellany are often used in butterfly stroke horticulture and monarch waystations . There are legion varieties of milkweed , here are 10 common miscellany .
1. Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias Incarnata)
swampland milkweed also refer to asrose milkflower or ashen Native American hempgrows close to 40 to 60 inch improbable . Its radical are branched and the clump imprint works egress in tardy spring after most other industrial plant have begun growth for the year . This plant bloom in too soon to mid - summer , produce little , fragrant , and pink to sometimes white colored flower in rounded umbel .
swampland milkweed farm in dampish to blotto grime and also is cultivated as a garden plant for its flowers , which attract butterfly and other pollinator with nectar . After bloom , the works make green seed pods that split open when ripe secrete light to dark brown , flat seed .
2. Oval-leaved Milkweed (Asclepias Ovalifolia)
Asclepias ovalifolia also referred to asoval - leaved milkweedgrows to 8 - 20 inch magniloquent . Its central shank is light fleeceable to brown and has diametrical leave that are oblong or elliptic work take place at intervals along the un - branched fundamental base . The upper surfaces of the blades are green and hairless , while their lower surfaces of the blades are wan dark-green and canescent to short - pubescent .
The prime of oval - leaved milkweed specie are white and produced in several umbel . This plant blooms in too soon to mid - summertime and like most milkweeds , this species is monoicous and make blackjack in its tissue . ellipse - leafage milkweed is one of the very few woodland milkweeds that grow with morning sun and good afternoon shadowiness or filtered sunlight all sidereal day long .
3. White Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias Perennis)
Asclepias Perennis also referred to asWhite swampland milkweedgrows to between 1 and 2 feet tall consisting of a clump of un - branched florescence stems that are light gullible to purplish in color . Pairs of leaves hap on the stem at jolly frequent interval along the stems . The upper foliage surface is average to dark gullible whereas the lower leaf surface is faint to medium honey oil .
The blooming geological period occurs from late leaping to mid - summer , lasting about 1 - 2 months . The flowers are mildly fragrant . Both the leaves and stems of white swamp milkweed hold back a milky latex and its pink whitened bloom attract butterflies and other pollinators and its foliage is larval food for both Monarch and queen butterflies .
4. Purple Mikweed (Asclepias Purpurascens)
Asclepias Purpurascens also referred to aspurple milkweed , begin its name from flowers that first rise a pinkish colouration but then turn darker purpleness as they ripen . Purple milkweed wait similar to mutual Sonchus oleraceus but the bloom coloring material is rich red - purple gloss compared to the sonant grayish - pink of common Sonchus oleraceus . Its ejaculate pods are smooth and a fiddling more svelte than those of common Sonchus oleraceus which has plump pods with a prickly aerofoil . Also majestic milkweed tend to spread out less sharply than other milkweed mintage .
The best time to see this beautiful and limited wild flower is from June to August . The blooms come about in the upper leaf axil of upright stems adorn with thick , oval , drab green leave , adorned with pointed tips . Its flowers are a great root of nectar for butterflies , hummingbirds , bees and other beneficial insects . After blooming , the plant acquire green seminal fluid pods that split open when ripe releasing seeds with long , silvery - ashen , slick haircloth .
5. Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
Asclepias syriaca commonly referred to ascommon silkweed , butterfly flower , milkweed or Virginia silkweedcan grow up to 10 foundation marvellous usually occurring in clusters of portly stem . It has rhizomes and quickly forms colony . Within its kitchen stove it can be encounter in a broad array of habitat from croplands , to grass , wayside , ditch and sometime field of operations .
The bow of common Sonchus oleraceus has simple , oppositely arranged leaves of up to 8 - in farsighted and 3½ column inch wide , oblong in human body and politic along their margins . The upper leaf surface is pale - medium to dark green and hairless above whereas the lower leaf surface is thickly covered with curt wooly hairs .
exceedingly fragrant , umbels of flower clusters go forth from the axil of the upper leaves . flower range in color from blow over pink to reddish - purple . The flowers of common milk weed flower for several workweek in July and August .
6. Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Butterfly milkweed also referred to asAsclepias tuberosagrows between 2 and 3 animal foot grandiloquent , with clustered orange or yellowed flower from other summertime to early fall . The theme are light green to dull carmine purpleness and less covered with spreading hair . The root system of this works consists of a woody taproot that is blockheaded and knobby . The taproot can extend several feet below the ground aerofoil .
Mature seed of butterfly stroke weed are about 4 mm long , flattened along margins ; the apices of these seeds have large tufts of snowy hair . The plant grow well in full sun , mesic to dry conditions and in acidic filth that is sandlike or rocky .
7. Wheel Milkweed (Asclepias Uncialis)
Asclepias uncialis also referred to asWheel milkweedgrows between 2 and 6 foundation tall . The stems are clear light-green to dull gullible and less cover with spreading hair . The lower leaves are shaft - shaped to ellipse whereas the upper leaves are narrower . The flowers occur at the ends of the stems in clustering of up to 12 . They are pink purpleness in color . The fruit of bicycle milkweed is a follicle containing come which each deliver a tussock of slick hairs up to an column inch long .
8. Redring Milkweed (Asclepias variagata)
Asclepias variagata ordinarily referred to asRedring milkweedgrows between 3 to 6 pes grandiloquent . This recurrent plant thrives in ironic to moist , loamy to bouldered open woodlands and edges of forest as well as cheery glades . root , petioles and main foliage veins are blood-red in spring but become greener during the turn season . Leaves have a broadly fill out to mildly tapered groundwork and leaf blades are mostly flat , facing sunshine . It produces small white flowers with purple centers that are crowd together into round , terminal clustering . It flowers in other summer .
9. Green comet milkweed (Asclepias Viridiflora)
Asclepias viridiflora commonly referred to asGreen - flower Milk River weed or comet milkweedgrows up to 5 foot tall . The stems of this plant life are mostly nonsocial or in pairs and bears opposite leaves up to four inches long . The stem is also light green to blood-red purple color with a cover in whitened hair . It create purplish - pink to dark-green - white flowers that bloom from July to August with the seeds ripening from August to October .
10. Green Antelopehorn (Asclepias viridis)
Asclepias viridis also referred to asGreen Antelopehorn or wanderer milkweedgrows 30 to 40 inch marvelous . Its stem is usually upright clad with mostly alternating , short - stalk , pointed , ovate - lanceote , pale green leaf . Tiny green flower with purple punk bloom in many - blossom axillary and terminal umbel from May to June . Each lilliputian flower has 5 vertical pale green corolla lobe ( petals ) and 5 empurpled hoods .
