Common Milkweed

Common Milkweed
Asclepias syriaca
Other names: Butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallowwort, Virginia silkweed
Family: Apocynaceae (Dogbane Family)
Range: Southern Canada and the US east of the Rockies
Native: Native
Native Habitat: Fields, open areas, waste areas
Bloom Time: June to August

Notes:
The plant will form large, clonal colonies when it finds a habitat it likes. It’s the best of all the milkweeds at colonizing disturbed sites. It prefers well drained soil, and cannot tolerate shade.
The plant produces a latex that is toxic to large mammals (including humans), but the plant shoots can be eaten. Common milkweed has a history of use for wart removal and lung diseases.
Native Americans used the silk from the seed pods as fiber for cordage and textiles. (Though they’re called seedpods, they’re not botanically considered seedpods. They’re follicles – a dry fruit that splits open along one seam to release its fruit.)
Many insects feed on this plant. Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) larvae eat only milkweed, so when milkweed populations decline, monarch populations decline. A. syriaca is their preferred species, when it’s young. The red milkweed beetle (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus) only feeds on A. syriaca.
This genus formerly had its own family – Asclepiadaceae. The genus name, Asclepias, commemorates Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine. Syriaca means ‘of Syria’, and is in reference to Linnaeus’s mistaken belief it was from Syria.

Insect Visitors:

Black Field Ant, Formica subsericea
Western Honey Bee, Apis mellifera
Red Milkweed Beetle, Tetraopes tetrophthalmus
Monarch butterfly caterpillar, Danaus plexippus
Click Beetle, Hadromorphus inflatus
Brown Belted Bumblebees, Bombus griseocollis
Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus
Great Spangled Fritillary, Speyeria cybele/Argynnis cybele
Large Milkweed Bug adult and larvae, Oncopeltus fasciatus