Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Showy Milkweed
Asclepias speciosa
Dogbane family (Apocynaceae)

Common along roadsides and in fields. Tall and sturdy flower with broad leaves are topped by a huge, showy cluster of pink/white flowers. The plant's sap contains poisonous glycosides which certain insects, notably the monarch butterfly, are capable of ingesting and using as their own defense. The seed pods and their white hairs are a common toy for kids. The hairs were used as pillow filling. Asclepias was a legendary Greek physician and the Greek god of medicine; "speciosa" is Latin for "showy" or "beautiful."


©2009 Keir Morse

Description

, 15-60" tall, gray-woolly with stout, hollow stems and milky sap. , - to -, gray-green with pink mid-rib. Flowerheads at end of stems, comprised of 5-parted flowers with white-pink petals that are bent back. are white-hairy warty pods releasing black and flattened seeds with long tufts of hairs.

Field Marks

Tall gray hairy plant with showy pink flowerheads and milky sap.

© Al Schneider

silky -- Covered with fine soft hairs, with a lustrous sheen. Satiny to the touch.

An umbel is a collection of flowers on short stalks which spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs. The arrangement can vary from being flat-topped to almost spherical.

A leaf is compound when multiple leaflets are on the same stem.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

In an opposite leaf arrangement the leaves come in pairs with one leaf on each side of a stem.

ovate -- Oval, egg-shaped, with a tapering point.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

stalk -- The supporting structure of an organ. Examples of stalks are stem, peduncle, petiole, ...

lanceolate -- Lance-shaped. Long, wider in the middle.

oblong -- Having an elongated form with somewhat parallel sides. Rectangular.