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Help ID a milkweed

20 years ago

So, a few years ago I bought purple milkweed, a. purpurescens, from some online source. Well for two years it was severed by rabbits (for who knows what reason) and never flowered. So this year I got smart and put some rabbit fencing around it, and now it flowers... and it looks suspiciously like common milkweed. Check out the link for a pic.

I know some of you own purple milkweed. What do you think? It doesn't look like any purple milkweed pix I've seen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mystery milkweed

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Comments (3)

sam_md
20 years ago
You have Common Milkweed or A. syriaca. A mature colony of this species can have plants over 5' tall, very coarse and agressive. As shown in your pic, leaf tip is acute.
I have Purple Milkweed or A. purpurascens. The first flowers are just starting to open. This species is not as coarse as the one above. Leaf is long-tapering toward the tip and the main vein is red/purple. Purple flowers are irresistable to Great Spangled Fritilary. Walls of follicles smooth, not warty.
Sam
fatso
Original Author
20 years ago
Ha, it figures. I watched this plant with baited breath for 2 years only to learn today that it's the same weed I see driving down the road! Oh well. I guess the seller made out on it...

How do you like purpurescens? How tall does it get? I've read one source that said it can be weedy and aggressive too w/its rhizomes (albeit not as bad as syriaca), while others say that is not the case. Is it more aggressive than swamp milkweed?
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I wouldn't be too dissapointed. Tansy is a very agressive plant that is almost impossible to control in a garden. You have one of the prettier leaved Tagetes. It looks close to Tagetes lucida, Mexican Tarragon. Yes, marigolds can smell like licorice too. I fell in love with Tansy when I first saw it. Started growing a plant that was soon 3 plants, then 5 plants. Realizing it would take over my garden, I got rid of it.
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Mandy, those are very nice photos of the flowers. It is easier, though, for ID purposes, if you also include a full plant shot that shows the leaves, plus identify the general area of the state where your plants were growing. Sharon may have provided the correct ID, but Asclepias sullivantii is similar and both grow in zone 7. Asclepias syriaca has leaves that are moderately to densely hairy on the bottom surface, while those of A. sullivantii are glabrous to sparsely hairy.
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huzzah
20 years ago
aggressive is not a problem. it is easier to get rid of than to establish.
it is a very cool plant, but the bloom time is very short. mine are already done blooming and starting to grow a few pods.

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