- Name
- Milkweed
- Common Names
- Scientific Name
- Asclepias spp
- Family
- Apocynaceae
- Description
- Perennial herb with milky sap. Flowers provide a nectar source for butterflies and bees and the plant is the larval host plant of the monarch butterfly.
- Leaves
- 3- to 12-inch, thick light green opposite, oblong leaves; downy underside; reddish veins, rounded at both ends or abruptly pointed at the tip. Milky sap when crushed.
- Flowers
- Common Milkweed (A. syriaca), 2-3-inch, domed umbel of dusty pink or lavender 5 petaled flowers with up to 100 flowers per cluster and 1-3 clusters per stem. They grow in the leaf axis, often drooping. Other varieties - orange, yellow, or white in color
- Bloom Time
- May-September
- Pollen Source
- fair
- Nectar Source
- good
- Pollen Color
- Native to NC
- No
