Wild Milkweed Plant. The genus name asclepias is named after the greek god of medicine asklepios. Grow milkweed plants in your garden for colorful fragrant and nectar rich flowers that attract pollinators of all sorts.
Save the milkweed for the butterflies. Butterfly milkweed asclepias tuberosa l by larry stritch. Proper identification of this wild plant is very important since it has a poisonous look alike called dogbane.
However eating large quantities of unprepared milkweed may cause bloating fever difficulty breathing dilated pupils and muscle spasms and the result can in very rare instances be fatal.
Milkweed is a lovely wildflower and the sole host plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars. Milkweed is a tough disease resistant plant but it can attract an undesirable element. Slugs and aphids can become a problem. Their petals fold backwards on the stem and the centre of the.