Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Stems glabrous to glabrate, 10-30 cm tall, minutely puberulent.

Leaves: Alternate to appearing whorled and spirally alternate, crowded and rigid, 2-5 cm long, linear-filiform, glabrous to puberulent, the margins revolute.

Flowers: Axillary or terminal umbel with short peduncles, small with the calyx lobes about 2 mm long, reflexed at anthesis, the corolla reflexed-rotate and greenish white, the lobes 3-5 mm, oblong, reflexed, the hoods erect, whitish, and shorter than the horns within but broadly oval.

Fruits: Narrowly fusiform follicle, 3-8 cm long, finely puberulent on an erect pedicel.

Ecology: Found on open plains and grasslands from 4,500-6,000 ft (1372-1829 m), flowers June-September.

Distribution: Great Plains species that ranges from northern New Mexico across the plains to Arkansas and north to the Dakotas and Montana.

Notes: This is a Great Plains species. Known to be toxic to livestock.

Ethnobotany: Infusion of the leaves taken for diarrhea.

Etymology: Asclepias is named for the Greek god of healing Asklepios, while pumila means dwarf.

Synonyms: Asclepias verticillata var. pumila

Editor: SBuckley 2011, 2014, AHazelton 2015