FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
All milkweeds have milky sap which may irritate skin; few other marsh plants have umbels of rose-colored flowers. A favorite of butterflies and other insects.
Description: A leafy 1 to 1.25 m tall herb, generally unbranched until the top.
Leaves: Opposite, lance-shaped, about 10 to 12 cm long.
Flowers/Fruit: Many small clusters of bright pink flowers at branch ends. Flat brown seeds with airborne white tufts. Blooms July to September; fruits August to October.
Habit and Range: Sunny marshes mainly, but also mountain bogs, wet meadows, openings in swamps, primarily in the Mountains, Piedmont, and the northeastern Coastal Plain. Absent from the southeastern quarter of the state.
Taxonomic Note: Common name is a misnomer - this milkweed is a marsh species (growing in sunny, open non-forested wetlands).
