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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE MILKWEED FAMILY | ||
| The milkweeds are widespread in tropical,
subtropical, and warm temperate regions of the world. They are found in
different habitats including marshes, swamps, deserts, rainforests, and
grasslands. Sometimes they even grow in disturbed areas, for example, roadsides. There are features that all, or at least most, of the milkweeds have in common. For example, these plants have a milky sap that you can see when you break open that stem, leaves, and sometimes the flowers. Be careful though, this milky sap contains bitter-tasting and sometimes poisonous substances. Milkweeds are herbs, shrubs, lianas, or rarely trees. In this family, the leaves are usually opposite. The flowers are found in an umbel or an umbrella-like cluster. The flowers have five sepals, petals, and stamens. One unique feature of milkweed flowers is the corona, which is formed from the fusion of the filaments of the stamens. The filaments have petal-like appendages that make the corona look like petals. The flowers are scented to attract insects for pollination. The fruits are pods called follicles that release seeds with long silky hairs. |
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| WHORLED MILKWEED | ||
| LATIN NAME: Asclepias verticillata | ||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | ||
| Whorled milkweed grows to 50 cm high and many stems may be clustered from a single taproot. Unlike most milkweeds that have opposite leaves, whorled milkweed has leaves in whorls of three to six along the stem. The leaves are narrow (1 – 2 mm wide) and are from 3 to 7 cm long. The edges of the leaf are rolled under and if you look underneath, you will see a white line; this is the midrib. There are between eight and 10 flowers in each umbel. The flowers are yellowish-green with white coronas. The fruits are up to 12 cm long and the seeds are flat with long, white, silky hairs. | ||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | ||
| Whorled milkweed grows on south facing slopes in clay or shale soil. It has been found with other plants such as little blue stem, western wheatgrass, and creeping juniper. | ||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | ||
| There are only two populations in Saskatchewan, both near Estevan, in the Moist Mixed Grassland ecoregion. | ||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | ||
| This plant is considered endangered in Saskatchewan because there are only two populations. Both populations are in areas that are grazed by cattle and may be sensitive to grazing or trampling. | ||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY WHORLED MILKWEED | ||
| * Are the leaves in whorls of three to six? * Are the leaves linear in shape with the edges rolled under? * Are the flowers yellowish with a white corona? * Did you find it near the Estevan area? |
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| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found whorled milkweed! | ||
