Scarlet Milkweed Florida. Although scarlet milkweed is not on the florida exotic pest plant council s fleppc list of invasive species populations are increasing throughout the state due to heavy planting and seeds being transported by the wind. Scarlet milkweed is a frost tender evergreen shrub from land surrounding the caribbean basin that is grown as an annual in gardens.
Plants with the word weed in their name are usually pooh poohed but scarlet milkweed is acknowledged as the best of the species and very popular in florida. The website also provides access to a database and images of herbarium specimens found at the university of south florida and other herbaria. Scarlet milkweed is native to south america but has become a naturalized weed in tropical and subtropical pastures fields and disturbed areas throughout the world including central and southern florida.
Culture scarlet milkweed is easy to grow thriving in dry moist and even wet soils.
It produces bunches of orange yellow and red tubular blooms for months. The leaves are willow shaped and to 5 inches long and are often marred with signs of feeding by several kinds of insects. The species was collected as early as 1936 in florida and by the 1960s it was found along roadsides then in pastures and. The colorful flowers earned it the name bloodflower and scarlet milkweed commercially.
