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Asclepias exaltata - (image 1 of 4)

Taxonomy

Family: Asclepiadaceae

Habitat

Mesic upland woods.

Associates

Distribution

Southern ME to VA and in mountains to GA, west to MN, eastern IA, IL, and TN

Morphology

Herbaceous perennial; stems 80-150 cm, glabrous or puberulent in narrow lines; leaves thin, broadly elliptic, 10-20 cm, acuminate at both ends, glabrous, or puberulent on the underside; petioles 1-2 cm; umbels loosely few-flowered, pedicels slender and spreading or drooping; corolla white to pale purple, the lobes 7-10 mm; hoods white or pink, 4 mm, about equaling the gynostegium, the lateral margins adjacent, each terminating in an erect tooth 1-1.5 mm, the rest of the hood truncate (tubular); horns subulate, suberect, exsert; fruit erect on deflexed pedicels, puberulent, 12-15 cm.

Notes

Flowers June to July

Wetland Indicator: UPL

Usually found in woods that are not too dense, though more likely to be found in shaded habitats than most other milkweed species other than A. quadrifolia.

References

Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY

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