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Butterfly weed seedling8/11/2023 Large, flat to slightly dome-shaped umbels (clusters) of up to 25 bright orange star-shaped flowers are produced at the ends of hairy flowering stems or in upper leaf axils from late spring through summer. Plants are slow to emerge late in the spring. It is best not to cut the foliage back in fall but wait until spring. The leaves turn a dull yellow in fall before the stems die back to the ground for the winter. Unlike most members of the milkweed family, this species does not have milky sap. The upper surface is smooth and glossy, while the underside is finely hairy, especially along the veins, and lighter in color than the upper side. Each leaf, up to 6 inches long, is sessile or with a very short petiole, pointed at the end and toothless on the margins. The lanceolate to oblong leaves are primarily alternate, often crowded together on the stout, hairy stems which are green to dull reddish-purple. Its tough, woody, knobby root that can grow several feet deep was used medicinally by Native Americans. This bushy perennial grows an abundance of dark green foliage on multiple erect to ascending stems from a large taproot, forming a clump 1½ to 3 feet tall and wide. With other common names including butterfly milkweed, orange milkweed, pleurisy root and chigger flower, Asclepias tuberosa is found in prairies and meadows, open woods, along roads and other open areas in zones 3-9.īutterflyweed has many narrow leaves on multiple ascending stems. Butterflyweed is a long-lived herbaceous perennial in the milkweed family (Apocynaceae, formerly Asclepidaceae) native to much of North America except the northwest, from eastern Canada south to Florida, west to the Dakotas down to Colorado and the southwest, except Nevada, into California, but is most widespread in the eastern half of the U.S.
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