Asclepias tuberosa, the butterfly weed, is a species of milkweed native to eastern and southwestern North America. It is commonly known as butterfly weed because of the butterflies that are attracted to the plant by its color and its copious production of nectar. It is also a larval food plant of the queen and monarch butterflies, as well as the dogbane tiger moth, milkweed tussock moth, and the unexpected cycnia Hummingbirds, bees and other insects are also attracted.
Asclepias is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to humans and many other species, primarily due to the presence of cardenolides, although, as with many such plants, there are species that feed upon them and from them. The genus contains over 200 species distributed broadly across Africa, North America, and South America. It previously belonged to the family Asclepiadaceae, which is now classified as the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the dogbane family, Apocynaceae.
Asclepias syriaca, commonly called common milkweed, butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed, is a species of flowering plant. It is in the genus Asclepias, the milkweeds. It is native to southern Canada and much of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, excluding the drier parts of the prairies. It grows in sandy soils as well as other kinds of soils in sunny areas.
Asclepias incarnata, the swamp milkweed, rose milkweed, rose milkflower, swamp silkweed, or white Indian hemp, is a herbaceous perennial plant species native to North America. It grows in damp through wet soils and also is cultivated as a garden plant for its flowers, which attract butterflies and other pollinators with nectar. Like most other milkweeds, it has latex containing toxic chemicals, a characteristic that repels insects and other herbivorous animals.
Butterfly gardening is a way to create, improve, and maintain habitat for lepidopterans including butterflies, skippers, and moths. Butterflies have four distinct life stages—egg, larva, chrysalis, and adult. In order to support and sustain butterfly populations, an ideal butterfly garden contains habitat for each life stage. Butterfly larvae, except the carnivorous harvester , consume plant matter and can be generalists or specialists. While butterflies like the painted lady are known to consume over 200 plants as caterpillars, other species like the monarch , and the regal fritillary only consume plants in one genus, milkweed and violets, respectively. Milkweed grows in every state in the United States except Alaska.
Asclepias curassavica, commonly known as tropical milkweed, is a flowering plant species of the milkweed genus, Asclepias. It is native to the American tropics and has a pantropical distribution as an introduced species. Other common names include bloodflower or blood flower, cotton bush, hierba de la cucaracha, Mexican butterfly weed, redhead, scarlet milkweed, and wild ipecacuanha.
Asclepias verticillata, the whorled milkweed, eastern whorled milkweed, or horsetail milkweed, is a species of milkweed native to most all of eastern North America and parts of western Canada and the United States.
Asclepias fascicularis is a species of milkweed known by the common names narrowleaf milkweed and Mexican whorled milkweed.
Asclepias speciosa is a milky-sapped perennial plant in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), known commonly as the showy milkweed, and is found in the Western half of North America.
Arnoglossum plantagineum also known as tuberous Indian-plantain, groovestem Indian plantain or Prairie Indian plantain, is a North American species of Arnoglossum in the sunflower family. he Latin specific epithet plantagineum refers to the leaves of the plant which are similar to those of a plantain.
Asclepias cordifolia is a species of milkweed commonly called heart-leaf milkweed or purple milkweed. It is native to the western United States, growing between 50 to 2,000 m elevation in the northern Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. Heart-leaf milkweed was valued by the Native American Miwok tribe for its stems, which they dried and processed into string and rope.
Asclepias cryptoceras is a species of milkweed known by the common names jewel milkweed, pallid milkweed, Humboldt Mountains milkweed, and cow-cabbage. It is native to the Great Basin of western North America, where it grows in many types of habitat, especially dry areas. This is a perennial herb growing low against the ground or drooping. It arises from a fleshy, woody rhizome-like root. The thick leaves are round to heart-shaped and arranged oppositely on the short stem. The inflorescence is a cluster of small flowers with centers of bright to dull pink hoods surrounded by pale-colored reflexed corollas. The fruit is a follicle held erect on a small stalk.
Asclepias meadii is a rare species of milkweed known by the common name Mead's milkweed. It is native to the American Midwest, where it was probably once quite widespread in the tallgrass prairie. Today much of the Midwest has been fragmented and claimed for agriculture, and the remaining prairie habitat is degraded.
Asclepias welshii is a rare species of milkweed known by the common name Welsh's milkweed. It is native to southern Utah and northern Arizona, where there are four known occurrences remaining. Most of the plants occur in Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, where the habitat has been degraded in many areas by off-road vehicle use. It is a federally listed threatened species of the United States.
Liatris punctata is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names dotted gayfeather, dotted blazingstar, and narrow-leaved blazingstar. It is native to North America, where it occurs throughout the plains of central Canada, the central United States, and northern Mexico.
Asclepias quadrifolia is a species of milkweed commonly called fourleaf milkweed or whorled milkweed. The plant occurs in the eastern United States and Canada.
Asclepias uncialis is a species of flowering plant in the dogbane family known by the common name wheel milkweed. It is native to the western United States. Two subspecies are sometimes described, with ssp. ruthiae containing three plants which are sometimes described as separate species, Asclepias ruthiae, A. eastwoodiana, and A. sanjuanensis.
Asclepias lanceolata, the fewflower milkweed, is a species of milkweed that is native to the coastal plain of the United States from New Jersey to Florida and Southeast Texas. A. lanceolata is an upright, perennial plant that can grow between 3 and 5 feet tall, with red-orange flowers blooming in the summer months. It can also be referred to as Cedar Hill milkweed, as it was first described by Dr. Eli Ives in the neighborhood of Cedar Hill in New Haven, Connecticut.
Delphinium exaltatum, known by the common name tall larkspur, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Delphinium, part of the buttercup family. Other Delphinium species are also commonly known as tall larkspur, such as Delphinium barbeyi. D. exaltatum is native to the central and eastern United States, where it can be found in Kentucky, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, and Missouri.
Asclepias hirtella, commonly called the tall green milkweed, is a species of flowering plant in the dogbane family (Apocynaceae). It is native to Canada and the United States, where its range is concentrated in the Midwest and Upper South.
