Wednesday's Wildflower: Fewflower Milkweed

Asclepias lanceolata
submitted by Lynn Sweetay, Palm Beach Chapter


A. lanceolata is tall with a herbaceous stem that does not branch. Leaves are very narrow and lanceolate. Flowers are orange to red and yellow. Flowering occurs in early summer. It is a larval host plant for monarch and queen butterflies and a possible larval host for soldier butterflies as well as providing nectar for monarch and other butterflies and insects.



It prefers wet to moist seasonally inundated sandy soils without humus. This plant does not tolerate salt or drought and prefers full sun and low nutrients.  I grow one on my back patio in full sun in a pot placed in a tub of water.  It is a perennial so it will die back and then reappear. It is an occasional, but widespread understory plant in open freshwater wetlands and pinelands.

The range includes Southeastern United States north to New Jersey, west to Texas and south to Miami-Dade County and the Monroe County mainland.  This milkweed can be found throughout Corbett WMA in Northwest Palm Beach County near my house.

I love the way it sways in the breeze with a butterfly perched on the flower.  

Other links:
USF Plant Atlas:  Asclepia lanceolata
Hawthorn Hill Wildflowers Blog: Fewflower Milkweed

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