Four-leaved Milkweed

(Asclepias quadrifolia)

 

Color Photograph: NRCS Plants Database, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Color photograph: Homer D. House. 1918. Wildflowers of New York.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Four-leaved Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia)

Identification: Plant less robust than most milkweed species. Flowers white, pink, or lavender, arranged in a rounded cluster at the apex of the plant. Family with a distinctive flower consisting of 4 petals hanging downward and a crown of 5 incurved horns. Fruit an elongate, thin, pointed pod containing flattened seeds topped with silken parachutes. Leaves and stems with milky sap. Lower leaves ovate, pointed and arranged in a whorl of 4 leaves about the stem. Upper leaves usually arranged in opposite pairs. Plant 1 to 2.5 feet in height.

Distribution: Most of eastern North America, but absent from Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Habitat: Four-leaved Milkweed is a woodland species.

Flowering period: May to July.

 

Four-leaved Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia)

Similar Species:

The gangly appearance of the plant and the whorls of four opposite leaves are distinctive features of Four-leaved Milkweed.

Similar Species

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