Thanks Jolana. It definitely isn't the pineland milkweed. Pineland leaves are opposite & my plants leaves are alternate or actually they kind of whorl around in different positions on the stem. I ran across that Sharon's site the other day searching for this & bookmarked it. I went through every single milkweed she has listed & it doesn't match any of them.

There is no discernible odor to the plant - none at all.

I took some more photos & will post them after dinner. I was wrong about the height Donald. Right now the one in my photos is 30" high & still growing.

Dang it, hope someone pops on and tells you soon !!

With the sap , have you considered something in the lettuce family?

We have some similar up here (zone 5) hairy leaves with sap

Yes, Cinda, I was just thinking about that.

Okay, more photos.
Base of plant


Showing how leaves are attached to the stem



Size of an older leaf - 5" long x 2" wide at the widest part



Showing the bloom stalks originating between the leaf & main plant stem

Ann, I can't take time to compare photos right now but could it be one of these listed here: http://www.sharonsflorida.com/...

Ann, not all milkweeds have opposite leaves, the most common that I see here in Texas, Asclepias viridis, green antelopehorn for one has alternate,

Thanks Lin. No, I've already checked those.

I've checked all the milkweeds for FL.

yikes, Jeanie, with that thick stem it reminds me of some of the weeds we get around here, like pokeweed, horseweed, and burnweed

The buds are elongating today

wow, interesting plant
the shape of the buds reminds me of burnweed

Try Silene dioica or one of the other species

Catmint20906 said:wow, interesting plant
the shape of the buds reminds me of burnweed

Me too! I was going to check that out. I know it isn't American Burnweed but it may be related.

Thank you Celeste. I just checked & it isn't any of those. Good try though.

A Prenanthes species?

Thank you Leftwood. I will check that out today.

Looks like blooms will appear soon; I wonder if it could be a variety of Packera, commonly called Ragwort, Butterweed, Groundsel.

Well, I just looked at photos of Packera and that's not the plant I was thinking of.

The flower buds suggest Asteraceae, Symphyotrichum has similar buds and some species such as Symphyotrichum novae-angliae have similar clasping, hairy leaves.

http://www.florafinder.com/Spe...

There's a very long list of Asteraceae in Florida.

http://luirig.altervista.org/f...

Symphyotrichum fontinale looks and sounds close ..

The species is distinguished by its lower stem leaves not constricted toward the base and upper leaves that are lanceolate or oblanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, bases cuneate to rounded, subclasping, with acute or acuminate, subspinulose apices, 6–7.6 mm high involucres, pale violet rays, and fruit bodies that are sparsely strigillose to nearly hairless

https://uwaterloo.ca/astereae-...