Stats

Lifespan: Perennial
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: North America
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Toxins
Status: Common

About

Common milkweed is a tall native wildflower whose globe-shaped clusters of dusty-pink blooms are the primary larval food source for monarch butterflies across North America. In late summer its thick green seed pods split open, releasing seeds trailing long silky white fibers that drift on the wind.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Gentianales
Family: Apocynaceae
Genus: Asclepias
Species: Asclepias syriaca