Butterfly Weed growing in strange form!
Hi everyone! Long-time lurker, first-time poster!
I hope someone can help me with a strange issue affecting one of my Butterfly Weeds (A. tuberosa). I have numerous specimens throughout my garden (zone 6, Hudson Valley of New York), and all are growing very well.
This one is actually my oldest specimen and has been in the ground for 6 years now. I've never had any issue with it, and it has always thrived alongside my other Butterfly Weeds in full sun in clay-loam. I know Butterfly Weeds have issues with poorly drained soils and clay, so I've always succeeded with them in the highest, best-draining parts of my property, and a few of my plants are the 'variant' of the species that grows better in clay (sold by Prairie Nursery).
This year, for some reason, the vast majority of the shoots on this plant are growing in a much more compact fashion, with very small, chlorotic looking leaves compared too all my other, healthier Butterfly Weeds. The even stranger part is that 2-3 shoots of this plant have come out normally, with taller stems, and larger, lusher, darker green foliage. I'm positive that these shoots are all coming out of the same plant crown. I've always deadheaded this one well before the seed pods develop, so there's no chance it's a seedling growing next to the mother plant.
In any event, does anyone have any idea why the original plant has suddenly grown so "stunted" and chlorotic" this year in the same conditions as all my other thriving Butterfly Weeds? And also why it has the random 2-3 shoots that are growing normally?
Photo 1 shows the whole plant with the stunted, chlorotic growth at right and the normal, larger green shoots at left.
Photos 2 and 3 show close-ups of the ”stunted” and ”normal” shoots:
Comments (9)
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Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed)
Comments (21)Angie, "Hello Yellow" is a named cultivar of Asclepias tuberosa that has yellow to gold colored flowers. Usually you see A tuberosa in shades of orange to red, but not on one plant. "Gay Butterflies" is a named cultivar that has different shades of oranges and reds on one plant. Here in Oklahoma, A tuberosa grows wild. You will see clumps of it growing across the prairie areas and on old farm lands. I find it to be quite beautiful. One of my favorite mind pictures is of a clump that I saw that was covered with Great Spangled Frits. Talk about something absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. A tuberosa has smaller, fuzzier leaves than the tropical milkweed, or A curavassica. The tuberosa plants also have a lower, scrubbier appearance. Tropical milkweed is an annual in Oklahoma. I IDed your picture by the leaves and the flower heads. The leaves are bigger than A tuberosa and smoother. The flower heads are more open, and the plants are usually taller than the native milkweed. Hope this helps. I've been checking online this evening, and found 10 seeds for $9.98. I think I'll probably opt for finding some plants and trying again to collect seeds in the fall. I had 2 plants last year, but a gopher decided to eat them before I collected any seeds. Sandy...See MoreRoadside Orange Butterfly Weed
Comments (16)organic_gardenhag, We usually come to GA. around the end of June and they are blooming. I'm not sure when they start. Maybe someone that lives there can answer. When I was a kid we called it chigger weed so I didn't dare touch it. I saw some blooming here already and mine will be blooming in the next week or so. The only other butterfly weed I have is asclepias curassivica and it's just now coming up....See Moresaving butterfly weed seed
Comments (4)Once the pods splits, the seeds will be ready to harvest. You'll have to keep checking them. I've found Asclepias tuberosa to be the easiest to harvest. The other varieties of Asclepias split and start falling and flying very quickly, while the tuberosa I can usually get a day or two later, still intact (but split). If you don't manage to harvest any, I could give you plenty! They're also a good candidate for Winter Sowing; the varieties I've winter sown had very high germination (A. incarnata, syriaca, tuberosa, curassavica)....See Moretomato leaves growing strange
Comments (16)"Thanks everyone and yes I sprayed my yard for weeds thought I was careful enough but must have got some on them they seem healthy still." The damage on the plants in the pictures looks to me like the effects of 2,4-D herbicide commonly found in products like Weed-B-Gone and Weed-Stop lawn herbicides. It's a broadleaf herbicide to which tomatoes are very sensitive. Also, in certain types of weather, particularly hot and humid conditions, 2,4-D can become "aerosol-ized" (I don't know the actual technical name for this phenomenon) and drift a considerable distance even in a slight or imperceptible breeze. 2,4-D disrupts normal cell division and orderly tissue growth, and the plant kind of grows itself to death. If your tomato plants survive, it means the dosage was miniscule and the newer growth will eventually stabilize and grow out of the damaged lower parts of the plant. When applying 2,4-D as spray, follow the label directions carefully, avoid spraying in the middle of hot sunny days, always cease or avoid spraying when wind speed exceeds 2 - 5 mph (I believe is the recommendation), etc. When spraying lawn herbicides, I add a few drops of dish detergent as a surfactant (sticker) and spray very early in the morning when there is dew on the grass blades. Hold the wand close to the ground, set the nozzle so the mist is not super fine and the droplets, while still tiny, have just a bit of weight, and selectively spray target vegetation. An effective method to avoid herbicide drift is to apply a "weed and feed" product where the 2,4D is mixed in granulated form with the fertilizer. This should be applied as a post emergent on actively growing target weeds, again in the morning is a good time when the dew helps the product stick to the weeds. I don't know what particular weeds were your target. 2,4-D does not kill crabgrass, for example, only broadleaf weeds. And when you get close to tomato plants, you might want to switch to a manual means of weed removal or try this technique for clumped weeds like dandelions, wild violets, etc.: Take a 3-foot length of 3/4 or 1-inch dia. PVC, duct tape a piece of sponge to one end and securely bind the taped area with twine, partially fill the tube with Roundup and cork the other end, walk around the yard and just dab the target weeds. For more noxious pests like Taz, extermination seems too brutal but isolation is an option....See More
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