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Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) |
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Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) Identification: Flowers bright orange, downward hanging petals sometimes darker than the projecting crown. Flowers arranged in rounded clusters. Family with a distinctive flower consisting of 4 petals hanging downward and a crown of 5 incurved horns. Fruit an elongate, pointed pod containing flattened seeds topped with silken parachutes. Stem hairy. Stem without milky sap. Leaves elongate, narrow, tapering at the apex, and base closely appressed to the stem. Plant 1 to 2 feet in height. Distribution: Most of eastern North America. Also found in the Great Plains and most of the west except the Northwest. Habitat: Butterfly Weed is found in fields and along roadsides. Flowering period: June to September.
Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition. |
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Similar Species: The orange flowers are distinctive for Butterfly Weed. Lanceolate Milkweed (Asclepias lanceolata; not treated here) also has orange flowers, but the leaves are thin and grasslike and the stem is not hairy. |
Similar Species No Similar Species |
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