Common milkweed
Asclepias syriaca L.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- —
- tall
- 1.2 m
- wide
- 25 cm
Apocynaceae
Also called Common Midwest milkweed, Butterfly flower, Silkweed, Silky swallow-wort, Virginia silkweed
Formerly Asclepias apocinum, Asclepias consanguinea, Asclepias cornuti, Asclepias globosa, and 5 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- PerennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- C. & E. Canada to NC. & E. U.S.A.Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 91 cm to 1.5 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 20 cm to 30 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- White, pink, purple, greenRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -40 °C (USDA zone 3a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: water, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- root
- ASCSYR, leninši
- Spanish
- algodoncillo común
- French
- asclépiade commune, asclépiade de Syrie, herbe à la ouate
- German
- Gewöhnliche Seidenpflanze, Kanadische Seidenpflanze, Papageienpflanze
- Portuguese
- algodão-bravo
- Ojibwa
- zhaabozigan, Zhaabozigan (Ninwish, Cabo'sîkûn)
- Czech
- klejicha hedvábná
- Dutch
- zijdeplant, Zijdeplant
- Estonian
- siidaskleepias
- Ukrainian
- Ваточник сирійський
- Russian
- Ваточник сирийский
- Finnish
- mesisilkkiyrtti, Mesisilkkiyrtti
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- 3D model: Asclepias syriaca (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.