milkweeds

(Asclepias spp.)

Overview
milkweed (Asclepias sp.)
Photo by Alfredo Colon
 

Asclepias is a genus of perennial flowering plants. There are more than 200 species worldwide, at least 76 species in North America north of Mexico, and fourteen species in Minnesota. The common name “milkweed” refers to the white milky sap. The sap contains cardiac glycosides, and most species are poisonous. Milkweeds are the hosts for monarch butterfly larva. The genus is named after the Greek god of healing, Asclepius.

 
           
 
Description
 
 

Milkweeds have opposite or whorled leaves on short leaf stalks; milky latex; inflorescences of umbel-like, many-flowered cymes; and a complex flower structure consisting on an erect cup surrounding, in most species, a prolonged horn.

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 24, 28, 29, 30.

 
  5/13/2023      
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Plantae (green algae and land plants)  
  Subkingdom Viridiplantae (green plants)  
  Infrakingdom Streptophyta (land plants and green algae)  
  Superdivision Embryophyta (land plants)  
  Division Tracheophyta (vascular plants)  
  Subdivision Spermatophytina (seed plants)  
  Class Magnoliopsida (flowering plants)  
  Superorder Asteranae  
 

Order

Gentianales (gentians, dogbanes, madders, and allies)  
 

Family

Apocynaceae (dogbane)  
  Subfamily Asclepiadoideae (milkweeds)  
  Tribe Asclepiadeae  
  Subtribe Asclepiadinae  
       
 

Subordinate Taxa

 
 

butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa ssp. interior)

clasping milkweed (Asclepias amplexicaulis)

common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

four-leaved milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia) ?

green milkweed (Asclepias viridiflora)

narrow-leaved milkweed (Asclepias stenophylla)

oval-leaf milkweed (Asclepias ovalifolia)

poke milkweed (Asclepias exaltata)

prairie milkweed (Asclepias hirtella)

purple milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens)

showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa)

Sullivant’s milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii)

swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata ssp. incarnata)

whorled milkweed (Asclepias verticillata)

woolly milkweed (Asclepias lanuginosa)

 
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

 

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

milkweeds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
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Alfredo Colon

 
    milkweed (Asclepias sp.)   milkweed (Asclepias sp.)  
 

Robert Briggs

 
    milkweed (Asclepias sp.)      
           
 
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  Alfredo Colon
8/8/2019

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota

milkweed (Asclepias sp.)  
  Robert Briggs
10/19/2016

Location: Southern River Trail, Afton State Park.

milkweed (Asclepias sp.)  
           
 
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Created: 11/6/2019

Last Updated:

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