Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Gentianales > Apocynaceae > Asclepias > Asclepias speciosa

Asclepias speciosa (showy milkweed)

Synonyms: Asclepias douglasii; Asclepias giffordii; Asclepias longicornis

Wikipedia Abstract

Asclepias speciosa is a milky-sapped perennial plant in the Dogbane Family (Apocynaceae), known commonly as the showy milkweed.
View Wikipedia Record: Asclepias speciosa

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-Low
Screening - Summer [2]  Moderate
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Bloom Period [2]  Early Summer
Drought Tolerance [2]  Low
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  High
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [2]  90 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Summer
Growth Form [2]  Single Crown
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Moderate
Hazards [3]  Although no specific reports have been seen for this species, many, if not all, members of this genus contain toxic resinoids, alkaloids and cardiac glycosides; They are usually avoided by grazing animals; One report says that the plant is considered poisonous in large quantities by some native North American Indian tribes;
Leaf Type [2]  Deciduous
Lifespan [3]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Bees, Insects, Lepidoptera, Lepidoptera
Propagation [2]  Container, Seed
Regrowth Rate [2]  Slow
Root Depth [2]  18 inches (46 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [2]  Medium
Seeds Per [2]  72000 / lb (158733 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Structure [4]  Herb
Usage [3]  A good quality tough fibre is obtained from the bark; It is used in twine, coarse cloth, paper etc; The fibre is 10 - 45mm long; It is easily harvested in late autumn, after the plants have died down, by simply pulling it off the dead stems; When making paper, the stems can be retted by leaving them in the ground until they are dry in the winter or they can be harvested in late summer, the leaves removed and the stems steamed to remove the fibre; The stems are then cooked for two hours with lye and pounded with mallets; The paper colour varies from white to creamy green depending on how the paper is made; If the stems are used in the summer the latex will often find its way onto the fibres and is hard to remove; The seed floss is used to stuff pillows etc, or is mixed with other fibres to make cloth; It has also been used as a baby's nappy; The seed floss is a Kapok substitute, used in Life Jackets or as a stuffing material; It is very water repellent. The floss has also been used to mop up oil spills at sea. Rubber can be made from latex contained in the leaves and the stems; The yield is up to 3%; Pods contain an oil and a wax which are of potential importance. A green dye is obtained from the flowers and leaves combined;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  White
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Black
Flower Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  30 inches (0.75 m)
Width [3]  24 inches (0.6 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 3 Low Temperature: -40 F° (-40 C°) → -30 F° (-34.4 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [2]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
Water Use [2]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Asclepias speciosa

Protected Areas

Predators

Danaus plexippus (Monarch Butterfly)[5]

Providers

Pollinated by 
Apis mellifera (honey bee)[6]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 6Clements, R. E., and F. L. Long. 1923, Experimental pollination. An outline of the ecology of flowers and insects. Washington, D.C., USA, Carnegie Institute of Washington.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0