Asclepias exaltata L.
Family: Apocynaceae
Poke Milkweed
[Asclepias bicknellii Vail,  more...]
Asclepias exaltata image
Peter Gorman  
From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

This is strictly a woodland species and is more or less infrequent, and associated for the most part with white oak. Ordinarily only a single plant or two are found at a place.

Stems 8-15 dm, glabrous or puberulent in narrow lines; lvs thin, broadly elliptic, 1-2 dm, acuminate at both ends, glabrous, or puberulent beneath; petioles 1-2 cm; umbels loosely few-fld, the slender pedicels spreading or often drooping; cor white to pale dull purple, the lobes 7-10 mm; hoods white or pink, 4 mm, about equaling the gynostegium, the lateral margins adjacent, each terminating in an erect tooth 1-1.5 mm, the rest of the hood truncate; horns subulate, suberect, conspicuously exsert; fr erect on deflexed pedicels, puberulent, 12-15 cm. Moist upland woods; s. Me. to Va. and in the mts. to Ga., w. to Minn., e. Io., Ill., and Tenn. June, July. (A. phytolaccoides)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Asclepias exaltata image
Peter Gorman  
Asclepias exaltata image
Peter Gorman  
Asclepias exaltata image
homeredwardprice  
Asclepias exaltata image
Peter Gorman  
Asclepias exaltata image
Peter Gorman  
Asclepias exaltata image
homeredwardprice