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Few Flower Milkweed

Asclepias lanceolata 

Few Flowered Milkweed Locations in North America
Few Flowered Milkweed Locations in Southeast US
Few flowered milkweed flower

few flowered milkweed full

USDA, NRCS. 2018. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 28 March 2018). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC 27401-4901 USA.
Illustration: USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. Vol. 3: 25.

What is Few Flowered Milkweed?

Other common spellings and names include: red milkweed.

Physical Characteristics

Leaves:

  • Opposite
  • Sword-shaped
  • 2.75-9.84 inches long
  • About 0.67 inches wide

Flowers:

  • Grow in sets of 1 or 2
  • Peduncles 0.59-3 inches long
  • Moderately large
  • Dull red in color

Fruit:

  • Dry
  • Open on only one side to release seeds when ripe
  • 3.16-4 inches long
  • About 0.39 inches thick
  • Smooth

Seeds:

  • Oval-shaped
  • About 0.39 inches long

Stem:

  • Slender
  • Simple
  • 1.75-3.25 feet tall

Where Does it Grow?

Few flowered milkweed is an obligate wetland plant for Gulf Coastal Prairie regions and can be found in brackish to freshwater marshes.

Bloom Color: Red , Orange 
Bloom Time: May , Jun , Jul , Aug 

Pros and Cons of Few Flowered Milkweed

Milkweed is the only plant eaten by Monarch butterfly caterpillars, one of the reasons their numbers are dropping is the loss of space for milkweed to grow due to mowing or pesticides.

Flowers are beneficial to native bees.

Submerged portions of all aquatic plants provide habitats for many micro and macro invertebrates. These invertebrates in turn are used as food by fish and other wildlife species (e.g. amphibians, reptiles, ducks, etc.). After aquatic plants die, their decomposition by bacteria and fungi provides food (called “detritus”) for many aquatic invertebrates.

How to Manage This Plant
Plant Glossary

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Photo Credits: The majority of the aquatic plant line drawings are the copyright of the University of Florida Center for Aquatic Plants (Gainsville). They are used with permission.

Aquatic plant photographs were provided by David Bayne, Jim Davis, Kelly Duffie, Billy Higginbotham, Michael Masser, John Clayton, Chetta Owens, Diane Smith, Joe Snow, Don Steinbach, Bridget Robinson Lassiter and Peter Woods.

You may use these photos, so long as you give credit to AquaPlant.

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