Butterfly Milkweed

This slow-growing garden favorite is worth the wait

Nature Of The Lake

BY KENNETH BOONE

Butterfly Milkweed is outstanding in its field.

OK, that’s an old joke, but during the late spring and summer blooming season around Lake Martin, Butterfly Milkweed’s bright tangerine orange or yellow-orange flowers really do stand out in the fields and open forests where it grows. That’s because the flowers tend to grow in large, showy, flat-topped clusters that are 2 to 5 inches wide – big patches of orange in locations that are mostly green and brown.

The tiny individual flowers have five petals and five sepals, all brightly colored.

These plants typically grow in dry, rocky and sandy areas, like fields, roadsides, open woods and prairies.

Its leaves are deep green and shaped like long, stiff, pointed oblongs with smooth edges. Leaves are lighter green on the bottom, darker on top. Butterfly Milkweed leaves spiral alternately along a long, green, hairy stem that is 1 to 3 feet tall. A young Butterfly Milkweed plant may just have one cluster of flowers atop a single stem, but older plants will often branch out and produce multiple clusters.

During the fall, the flowers give way to long, pointed seed pods filled with brown oval seeds that have silky tails. When the pods dry and split open, the white, wispy tails catch the wind and help this plant spread its seeds across a large area.

Unlike most other milkweeds, this one does not produce milky white latex sap in its stem.

This perennial herb is a slow-growing plant that loses its leaves in winter.

It has more than a dozen common names, including Orange Milkweed, Butterfly Weed, Pleurisy Root, Chiggerflower, White-root, Butterfly Love, Orange Root, Indian Posy, Fluxroot, Orange Swallow-wort, Silky Swallow-root, Canada Root and more. Its scientific name is Asclepias tuberosa.

The word “butterfly” in several of its common names is a result of the flower’s nectar that attracts many species of butterflies, including Monarchs and Viceroys, as well as bees and hummingbirds.

This plant is native to the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Canada.

From the time a seed is planted, it takes this Butterfly Milkweed two or even three seasons to flower. But because it is so attractive, this Butterfly Milkweed is often used in gardens, especially those planted to attract butterflies.

Its root is long – extending up to a foot deep – woody and brittle, which makes this plant hard to transplant once it is established, so it is best to leave wild plants where they are and collect seed or order seed from the dozens of outlets that sell Butterfly Milkweed seed for gardeners. usbank.com/mortgage

Butterfly Milkweed is easy to grow and does best in medium to dry, well-drained soil.

If you decide to plant Butterfly Milkweed, know that the seeds can parachute throughout your garden and reseed if you don’t clip off the seed pods before they split open. Another alternative is to clip the stem and use the dried, curled pods in flower arrangements.

The flowers themselves last a long time in bouquets and arrangements but for the long-term health of Butterfly Milkweed, its best to not pick all the blooms from one plant.

Native Americans chewed the root as a treatment for pleurisy and other lung ailments; however, the leaves and above-ground parts of milkweeds are toxic and have been known to kill sheep and harm other livestock.

Some information for this article came from the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, the Missouri Botanical Garden, North Carolina State Extension, the USDA Agricultural Research Service and the Virginia Native Plant Society.

Previous Pages: Butterfly Milkweed produces clusters of tangerine or yellow-orange blossoms that are popular with butterflies and bees; Left: A young Butterfly Milkweed plant may only produce one cluster of flowers atop a single stem but will likely have more flowers as the plant matures; Below: The flowers last a long time in arrangements, but for its long-term health, it's best to pick only a few blossoms from each plant.

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