Butterfly Weed

You may also come across Asclepias tuberosa which is commonly known as Butterfly Weed. It is a native wildflower of North America.

It has brilliant orange flowers during the summer. The flowers have 5 petals.

The sap is not milky. It is watery.

Butterfly weed grows about 75 cms. tall.

It has narrow, shiny, medium green leaves.

The pods are smaller and more narrow than Common Milkweed pods.

Butterfly weed is sometimes called Pleurisy Root. Native Americans chewed its fibrous root as a treatment for lung ailments.

I have observed many insects on these plants including the Assassin Bug and Monarch caterpillars .

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Milkweed & Monarch Butterfly main page

More on Butterfly Weed

Science Journal entry | Collecting Data activity

Measuring Milkweed project | Observation: Milkweed

Resources | Milkweed crossword Puzzle | Milkweed Symmetry

Do this Life Cycle activity to learn about flowers