Western Whorled Milkweed

[Asclepias subverticillata (Gray) Vail]

Asclepiadaceae (Milkweed Family)

mature plants with flowers ▲▼

mature plants with flowers ▲

flowers ▲

·         Western Whorled Milkweed: (not in Weeds of the Great Plains, not in Weeds of the Northeast)

o   a creeping perennial with rhizomes appearing similar to whorled milkweed

o   differs in that the stems tend to have more branching in upper portions

o   leaves linear, in whorls around stem at nodes

o   flowers are greenish-white in terminal axils; fruit is slender pod

o   sap is one of the more poisonous of milkweeds—poisoning more common with this species

o   found in pastures, roadsides, reduced-tillage fields, in good, sandy or clayey soils; tolerates wetter soils

o   found in western Midwest, not much in Missouri