Purple milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens)

Features and Characteristics

Asclepias purpurascens, commonly called purple milkweed, is a rough, weedy, Missouri native perennial that commonly occurs in dry to moist open woods, dry ridge tops, thickets, glades, prairie openings, stream banks and wet meadows throughout most of the state (Steyermark). It is similar in appearance to common milkweed (A. syriaca), except its flowers are deep rose pink and its leaves are more pointed. It typically grows 2-3’ tall on stout, upright stems with heavy, pointed, short-stalked, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, opposite leaves (to 8” long). Leaves are dark green above and slightly pubescent below. Stems and leaves exude a milky sap when cut or bruised. Tiny, deep rose-pink flowers appear in many-flowered umbels in May-July. Each tiny flower (to 3/4” long) has 5 reflexed petals and 5 purple heads. Flowers give way to smooth seed pods (to 6” long) which split open when ripe releasing their numerous silky-tailed seeds for dispersal by the wind. Seed pods are valued in dried flower arrangements. Flowers are a nectar source for many butterflies and leaves are a food source for monarch butterfly larvae (caterpillars).

Genus name honors the Greek god Asklepios the god of medicine.

Specific epithet means purple.