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Most easily propagated by seed. The primary pollinators are bees and wasps, rather than butterflies.<ref>Fishbein, M., and D.L. Venable. 1996. Diversity and change in the effective pollinators of ''Asclepias tuberosa''. Ecology 77:1061-1073.</ref> Sown outdoors after frost, a plant will flower and produce seed in the third year. It is difficult to transplant once established, as it has a deep, woody taproot.<ref>Loewer, Peter 'Native Perennials For the Southeast' Cool Springs Press. Nashville, Tenn. 2005 {{ISBN|1-59186-121-7}}</ref><ref>Druse, Ken 'Making More Plants The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation' Abrams. New York, NY. 2012 {{ISBN|0-517-70787-X}}</ref>
Most easily propagated by seed. The primary pollinators are bees and wasps, rather than butterflies.<ref>Fishbein, M., and D.L. Venable. 1996. Diversity and change in the effective pollinators of ''Asclepias tuberosa''. Ecology 77:1061-1073.</ref> Sown outdoors after frost, a plant will flower and produce seed in the third year. It is difficult to transplant once established, as it has a deep, woody taproot.<ref>Loewer, Peter 'Native Perennials For the Southeast' Cool Springs Press. Nashville, Tenn. 2005 {{ISBN|1-59186-121-7}}</ref><ref>Druse, Ken 'Making More Plants The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation' Abrams. New York, NY. 2012 {{ISBN|0-517-70787-X}}</ref>


Monarch Watch provides information on rearing monarchs and their host plants.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.monarchwatch.org/index.html|title=Monarch Watch|work=monarchwatch.org|access-date=September 27, 2015}}</ref> Efforts to increase butterfly populations by establishing butterfly gardens and monarch migratory "waystations" require particular attention to the target species' food preferences and population cycles, as well to the conditions needed to propagate and maintain their food plants.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Thomas D.|last1=Landis|first2=R. Kasten|last2=Dumroese|url=https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_journals/2015/rmrs_2015_landis_t001.pdf|title=Propagating Native Milkweeds for Restoring Monarch Butterfly Habitat|journal=International Plant Propagators’ Society, Combined Proceedings (2014)|year=2015|volume=64|pages=299-307|access-date=July 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308083021/https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_journals/2015/rmrs_2015_landis_t001.pdf|archive-date=March 8, 2021|url-status=live|via=[[United States Department of Agriculture]]: [[United States Forest Service]]}}</ref>
[[Monarch Watch]] provides information on rearing monarchs and their host plants.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.monarchwatch.org/index.html|title=Monarch Watch|work=monarchwatch.org|access-date=September 27, 2015}}</ref> Efforts to increase butterfly populations by establishing butterfly gardens and monarch migratory "waystations" require particular attention to the target species' food preferences and population cycles, as well to the conditions needed to propagate and maintain their food plants.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Thomas D.|last1=Landis|first2=R. Kasten|last2=Dumroese|url=https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_journals/2015/rmrs_2015_landis_t001.pdf|title=Propagating Native Milkweeds for Restoring Monarch Butterfly Habitat|journal=International Plant Propagators’ Society, Combined Proceedings (2014)|year=2015|volume=64|pages=299-307|access-date=July 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308083021/https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_journals/2015/rmrs_2015_landis_t001.pdf|archive-date=March 8, 2021|url-status=live|via=[[United States Department of Agriculture]]: [[United States Forest Service]]}}</ref>


In cultivation in the greenhouse, plants can easily be grown from seed to flowering in as little as three to six months.
In cultivation in the greenhouse, plants can easily be grown from seed to flowering in as little as three to six months.

Revision as of 01:51, 12 July 2021

Asclepias tuberosa

Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Gentianales
Family: Apocynaceae
Genus: Asclepias
Species:
A. tuberosa
Binomial name
Asclepias tuberosa
Synonyms[1]
  • Acerates decumbens Decne.
  • Asclepias decumbens L.
  • Asclepias elliptica Raf.
  • Asclepias lutea Raf. nom. illeg.
  • Asclepias revoluta Raf.
  • Asclepias rolfsii Britton ex Vail

Asclepias tuberosa, the butterfly weed, is a species of milkweed native to eastern and southwestern North America.[2] 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.[3] 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.[3][4]

Because of its rough leaves, Asclepias tuberosa is not a preferred host plant of the monarch butterfly but caterpillars can be reared on it successfully.[5] Further, it is one of the very lowest Asclepias species in cardenolide content, making it a poor source of protection from bird predation and parasite virulence and perhaps contributing to its lack of attractiveness to egg-laying monarchs.[6]

Description

It is a perennial plant growing to 0.3–1 metre (1 ft 0 in – 3 ft 3 in) tall, with clustered orange or yellow flowers from early summer to early autumn. The leaves are spirally arranged, lanceolate, 5–12 cm (2" to 5") long, and 2–3 cm (about 1") broad.

Some wild plants have been reported to have orange flowers that are very reddish. It is uncertain if this is due to soil mineral content, ecotype genetic differentiation, or both. A cultivar, "Hello Yellow", typically has more yellowish flowers than ordinary examples of this plant.

Distribution and habitat

This plant favors dry, sand or gravel soil, but has also been reported on stream margins. It requires full sun.

Identification

The plant looks similar to the lanceolate milkweed (Asclepias lanceolata), but is uniquely identified by the larger number of flowers, and the hairy stems that are not milky when broken. It is most commonly found in fields with dry soil.

Propagation

Most easily propagated by seed. The primary pollinators are bees and wasps, rather than butterflies.[7] Sown outdoors after frost, a plant will flower and produce seed in the third year. It is difficult to transplant once established, as it has a deep, woody taproot.[8][9]

Monarch Watch provides information on rearing monarchs and their host plants.[10] Efforts to increase butterfly populations by establishing butterfly gardens and monarch migratory "waystations" require particular attention to the target species' food preferences and population cycles, as well to the conditions needed to propagate and maintain their food plants.[11]

In cultivation in the greenhouse, plants can easily be grown from seed to flowering in as little as three to six months.

Subspecies

  • Asclepias tuberosa subsp. interior – (Central United States, Ontario and Quebec[12])
  • Asclepias tuberosa subsp. rolfsii – Rolfs milkweed (Southeastern United States)
  • Asclepias tuberosa subsp. tuberosa – (Eastern United States)

Common names

Common names include butterfly weed,[13] Canada root, chieger flower,[13] chiggerflower, fluxroot, Indian paintbrush, Indian posy, orange milkweed, orange root,[14] orange Swallow-wort, pleurisy root,[13] silky swallow-wort, tuber root, yellow milkweed, white-root, windroot, butterfly love, butterflyweed, and butterfly milkweed.[15]

Toxicity and uses

The plant contains toxic glycosides, alkaloids and resinoids. These can cause weakness, seizures and corneal injuries.[16]

Native Americans and European pioneers used the boiled roots to treat diarrhea and respiratory illnesses.[17] The young seed pods were used as food after being boiled in several changes of water.[17] The seed pod down was spun and used to make candle wicks.[17]

Use of the plant is contraindicated in pregnancy, during lactation or with infants due to its toxins, which include resinoids and pregnanes.[18] Because monarch butterflies do not favor it when reproducing, it is not as suitable for use in butterfly gardens and monarch waysides as are other milkweed species.[5][6]

  • Entire plant from the ground to the flower
    Entire plant from the ground to the flower
  • Young stems during spring
    Young stems during spring
  • A young leaf
    A young leaf
  • An emerging flower head
    An emerging flower head
  • Closeup of the hairy stems
    Closeup of the hairy stems
  • Closeup of unopened buds
    Closeup of unopened buds
  • Flower head
    Flower head
  • Closeup showing unopened, opening, and fully opened flower buds
    Closeup showing unopened, opening, and fully opened flower buds
  • Orange flowers
    Orange flowers
  • Red-striped orange flowers
    Red-striped orange flowers
  • Yellow flowers
    Yellow flowers
  • Seedpod
    Seedpod

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Asclepias tuberosa". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
  2. ^ (1) "Query Page". BONAP’s Taxonomic Data Center (TDC): The Biota of North America Program: North American Vascular Flora.
    (2) Stevens, Michelle. "Plant guide for Butterfly Milkweed: Asclepias tuberosa L." (PDF). United States Department of Agriculture: Natural Resources Conservation Service: National Plant Data Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
    (3) Stritch, Larry. "Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa L.)". Plant of the Week. United States Department of Agriculture: United States Forest Service. Archived from the original on March 27, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  3. ^ a b (1) Stevens, Michelle. "Plant guide for Butterfly Milkweed: Asclepias tuberosa L." (PDF). United States Department of Agriculture: Natural Resources Conservation Service: National Plant Data Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2021. Milkweed species are attractive to many insect species, including the large milkweed bug, common milkweed bug, red milkweed beetle, blue milkweed beetle, and bees.
    (2) Mader, Eric; Shepherd, Mathew; Vaughan, Mace; Black, Scott Hoffman; LeBuhn, Gretchen (2011). Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America's Bees and Butterflies: The Xerces Society guide. North Adams, Massachusetts: Storey Publishing. p. 291. ISBN 9781603427470. LCCN 2010043054. OCLC 776997073. Retrieved July 7, 2021 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ Schillo, Rebecca (2011). Cummings, Nina (ed.). "Native Landscaping Takes Root in Chicago". In the Field. The Field Museum: 13.
  5. ^ a b Gomez, Tony. "Asclepias Tuberosa: Butterfly Weed for Monarchs and More". Monarch Butterfly Garden. Archived from the original on August 16, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2020. Rough leaves for monarch caterpillars, not typically a heavily used host plant.
  6. ^ a b (1) "Milkweeds (mostly Asclepias spp.)". Alonso Abugattas Shares Native Plant Picks for Wildlife. Mid-Atlantic Gardener. 2016. Archived from the original on March 13, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2020. And if you have hot, dry conditions in your yard, try Butterflyweed (A. tuberosa). .... It's the least favored by Monarch caterpillars because it has very little toxin (cardiac glycosides) in its leaves.
    (2) Abugattas, Alonzo (January 3, 2017). "Monarch Way Stations". Capital Naturalist. Archived from the original on June 5, 2017. Retrieved June 5, 2017 – via Blogger. (A. tuberosa) is the least favored by monarch caterpillars .... because it has very little toxin (cardiac glycosides) in its leaves, .....
    (3) "Butterfly Weed: Asclepias tuberosa" (PDF). Becker County, Minnesota: Becker Soil and Water Conservation District. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 11, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020. Unlike other milkweeds, this plant has a clear sap, and the level of toxic cardiac glycosides is consistently low (although other toxic compounds may be present)..
    (4) Mikkelsen, Lauge Hjorth; Hamoudi, Hassan; Altuntas Gül, Cigdem; Heegaard, Steffen (2017). "Corneal Toxicity Following Exposure to Asclepias tuberosa". The Open Ophthalmology Journal. 11. Bentham Science Publishers: 1–4. doi:10.2174/1874364101711010001. PMC 5362972. PMID 28400886. The latex of A. tuberosa seems to be different from other members of the Asclepias family due to the fact that even though cardenolides are normally considered present in Asclepias species, these cardenolides have not been found in A. tuberosa. Instead some unique pregnane glycosides are found in A. tuberosa.
    (5) Warashina, Tsutomu; Noro, Tadataka (February 2010). "8,12;8,20-Diepoxy-8,14-secopregnane Glycosides from the Aerial Parts of Asclepias tuberosa". Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin. 58 (2). Pharmaceutical Society of Japan: 172–179. doi:10.1248/cpb.58.172. PMID 20118575. Retrieved September 11, 2020. Though cardenolides are considered to be characteristic constituents of Asclepias spp. together with pregnane glycosides, we could find no cardenolides in the more hydrophobic fraction of the methanol extract of the aerial parts of A. tuberosa, the same as previously.
    (6) Pocius, Victoria M.; Debinski, Diane M.; Pleasants, John M.; Bidne, Keith G.; Hellmich, Richard L. (January 8, 2018). "Monarch butterflies do not place all of their eggs in one basket: oviposition on nine Midwestern milkweed species". Ecosphere. 9 (1). Ecological Society of America (ESA): 1–13. doi:10.1002/ecs2.2064. Retrieved July 6, 2021 – via Wiley Online Library. In our study, the least preferred milkweed species A. tuberosa (no choice; Fig. 2) and A. verticillata (choice; Fig. 3A) both have low cardenolide levels recorded in the literature (Roeske et al. 1976, Agrawal et al. 2009, 2015, Rasmann and Agrawal 2011)
  7. ^ Fishbein, M., and D.L. Venable. 1996. Diversity and change in the effective pollinators of Asclepias tuberosa. Ecology 77:1061-1073.
  8. ^ Loewer, Peter 'Native Perennials For the Southeast' Cool Springs Press. Nashville, Tenn. 2005 ISBN 1-59186-121-7
  9. ^ Druse, Ken 'Making More Plants The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation' Abrams. New York, NY. 2012 ISBN 0-517-70787-X
  10. ^ "Monarch Watch". monarchwatch.org. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  11. ^ Landis, Thomas D.; Dumroese, R. Kasten (2015). "Propagating Native Milkweeds for Restoring Monarch Butterfly Habitat" (PDF). International Plant Propagators’ Society, Combined Proceedings (2014). 64: 299–307. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2021 – via United States Department of Agriculture: United States Forest Service.
  12. ^ Species profile on VASCAN. Retrieved on February 21, 2018.
  13. ^ a b c "Asclepias tuberosa". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  14. ^ anonymous (2008). "Featured Native Plant: Butterfly Weed" (PDF). Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes. 6 (4). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 14, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  15. ^ Dickinson, T.; Metsger, D.; Bull, J.; & Dickinson, R. (2004) ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario. Toronto:Royal Ontario Museum, p. 138.
  16. ^ (1) Elias, Thomas S.; Dykeman, Peter A. (2009) [1982]. Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods. New York: Sterling. pp. 267–68. ISBN 978-1-4027-6715-9. OCLC 244766414.
    (2) Mikkelsen, Lauge Hjorth; Hamoudi, Hassan; Altuntas Gül, Cigdem; Heegaard, Steffen (2017). "Corneal Toxicity Following Exposure to Asclepias tuberosa". The Open Ophthalmology Journal. 11. Bentham Science Publishers: 1–4. doi:10.2174/1874364101711010001. PMC 5362972. PMID 28400886. The latex of A. tuberosa seems to be different from other members of the Asclepias family due to the fact that even though cardenolides are normally considered present in Asclepias species, these cardenolides have not been found in A. tuberosa. Instead some unique pregnane glycosides are found in A. tuberosa.
    (3) Stevens, Michelle. "Plant guide for Butterfly Milkweed: Asclepias tuberosa L." (PDF). United States Department of Agriculture: Natural Resources Conservation Service: National Plant Data Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2021. Milkweed species, as a group, are known to contain cardiac glycosides that are poisonous both to humans and to livestock, as well as other substances that may account for their medicinal effect. Resinoids, glycosides, and a small amount of alkaloids are present in all parts of the plant. Symptoms of poisoning by the cardiac glycosides include dullness, weakness, bloating, inability to stand or walk, high body temperature, rapid and weak pulse, difficulty breathing, dilated pupils, spasms, and coma.
  17. ^ a b c "Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)". tpwd.texas.gov. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
  18. ^ (1) "Asclepias tuberosa". Native Plant Database. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas at Austin. "Warning: POISONOUS PARTS: Roots, plant sap from all parts. Not edible. Toxic only if eaten in large quantities. Symptoms include vomiting, stupor, weakness, spasms. Toxic Principle: Resinoid, cardiac glycoside" "Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - the University of Texas at Austin". Archived from the original on February 5, 2020. Retrieved October 17, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link).
    (2) Mikkelsen, Lauge Hjorth; Hamoudi, Hassan; Altuntas Gül, Cigdem; Heegaard, Steffen (2017). "Corneal Toxicity Following Exposure to Asclepias tuberosa". The Open Ophthalmology Journal. 11. Bentham Science Publishers: 1–4. doi:10.2174/1874364101711010001. PMC 5362972. PMID 28400886. The latex of A. tuberosa seems to be different from other members of the Asclepias family due to the fact that even though cardenolides are normally considered present in Asclepias species, these cardenolides have not been found in A. tuberosa. Instead some unique pregnane glycosides are found in A. tuberosa.
    (3) Warashina, Tsutomu; Noro, Tadataka (February 2010). "8,12;8,20-Diepoxy-8,14-secopregnane Glycosides from the Aerial Parts of Asclepias tuberosa". Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin. 58 (2). Pharmaceutical Society of Japan: 172–179. doi:10.1248/cpb.58.172. PMID 20118575. Retrieved September 11, 2020.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Asclepias tuberosa.
Wikispecies has information related to Asclepias tuberosa.
The Wikibook Horticulture has a page on the topic of: Asclepias tuberosa
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