Asclepias syriaca - COMMON MILKWEED

One of Nature's top food supermarkets for insects! Over 450 insects are known to feed on some portion of this species, including monarchs!

This milkweed is the easiest to grow but also the most “weedy”. Due to it’s long underground runners, it forms extensive (loose) colonies. It boasts round clusters of pinkish flowers and big oval leathery leaves.

A pretty structural plant and very beneficial for wildlife, the best use for it is in bigger areas where it can naturalize like butterfly gardens, meadows, prairies, edges or native plant areas. It spreads too aggressively for a common flower border. It can be combined with many taller prairie plants and is one of the few plants that will grow alongside daylilies (Hemerocallis fulva).

Native Americans used this species as a source of fibers, and during WWII, children in the northern states collected the fluff (floss) which was used for floatation in life vests. Nowadays it is harvested for stuffing in pillows and comforters.

Blooming Time: June to August
Size: usually 3’ tall (can grow taller) x 1’ wide, but spreading with long underground rhizomes (spacing 2-3')
USDA Zones: 3 to 9
Culture: full sun, half shade; very adaptable to many soil types, including clay, sandy soils, loam
Moisture Needs: prefers medium moisture but is very adaptable, so it grows fine in dry, medium-dry, medium-wet soils
Origin: native wildflower to Eastern North America. This perennial colonizes disturbed (either naturally or by humans) areas. Indigenous to moist to dry black soil prairies, sand prairies, sand dunes along lake shores, thickets, woodland borders, fields and pastures, abandoned fields, vacant lots, fence rows, along railroads and roadsides.
Deer/Rabbit Resistant: yes / yes, it’s bitter and toxic to herbivores
Attracts Butterflies or Pollinators: common milkweed is an awesome pollinator plant, especially for nectar seekers such as long-tongued bees, wasps, flies, skippers, and butterflies, but also short-tongued bees, a variety of plant bugs, and moths (inc. Sphinx moths). Common milkweed sets up seeds only when cross-pollinated (managed mostly by bigger butterflies, long-tongue bees and predatory wasps). It is a host plant for caterpillars of Danaus plexippes - Monarch Butterflies, and the caterpillars of a few moths (Milkweed Tiger Moth, Unexpected Cycnia, Delicate Cycnia etc.) feed on the foliage. The caterpillars become toxic which offers protection from birds.
Attracts Hummingbirds: no
Pot Size: 3.5" x 4" perennial pot (1.22 pt/580 ml)