The label on this one only says "Asclepias Orange." It is a low, spreading plant and the leaves have an unusual (to me) heart shape at the base where they join the stem. Any ideas?
Thanks, alice

Alice, it is butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa, also called milkweed), a Monarch butterfly host plant. This is a wonderful addition to any garden.

Do all A. tuberosas grow in a spreading fashion? I thought I had tuberosas in my own garden but mine grow upright to about 5', perhaps they are A. curassavica. I bought 3 of these little ones for a butterfly garden at our library and I do want to ID them correctly. How about the heart shaped leaves, are they typical?

Mine are definitely upright and quite tall. They spread outward from year to year, and I remove all but a few of the pods in the fall to prevent more seeding than I want. The leaves on mine look exactly like yours.
Tropical milkweed (A. curassavica) will not grow as a perennial here, so I don't know much about them.

Thanks, I have never seen these spreading ones around here. They grow like lantanas.

The leaves do fit Asclepias tuberosa

http://www.friendsofthewildflo...

Compare with Asclepias curassavica

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

It sure looks like Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) to me also.

Thanks, do you have any idea which one? The grower did not know any more about it, he had gotten it in, unlabeled, as a liner, with the more traditional (upright) tuberosas. We are trying to figure how how far it will spread before we plant it.

To the best of knowledge there is only one orange asclepias tuberosa. Hello Yellow is yellow, obviously, and there is a red form available though I do not commonly see it offered by itself. More often I see a mixture called Gay Butterflies which has all three colors of orange, yellow and red.
As far as spreading, my original plant was purchased in a 4" pot and is 3-4 feet wide by 3-4 feet tall after 3 years.

The plot thickens. The first flush of flowers has passed and this is what the mystery plant looks like now. There is no indication of typical seed pods like my tuberosa and curassava get. I am still stumped.


Edited to say, yes, I know there are aphids. I've been out of town and you know how the mice will play when the cat's away.

First of all pods don't appear overnight, they take time to grow. But in this case it looks like the blooms did not get fertilized, so no fruit is going to form. From my limited experience with Asclepias they don't set seed very prolifically.

OK, maybe some are fussy. My others are always loaded with pods which, when they are ripe, I share with local native plant folks.

Mine did not set pods for about the first three years...it had a lot of them last year, so we will see if they appear again this year.

Last year I had 3 Asclepias curassavicas and because I live in the toasty state of Texas, all came back this year. Plus all of them set pods. One of the 3 was labeled Asclepias curassavica 'Silky Gold' and, true to its name, the flower was definitely a yellow gold.

I think your plant with the orange flowers is Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), as others have said.
This year I thought I heard a pied piper calling me to one of my favorite garden centers where I caved and bought some A. Incarnata (Swamp Milkweed) and A. Asperula (Antelope Horns). In the spring I went to a plant sale and bought A. verticillata (whorled milkweed). I think 1 of the last 2 is mislabeled or maybe I bought another one. I don't know. I have no memory. But yours is more than likely Butterfly Weed.

Whichever one you have, be happy that you have it. You have a pretty plant and even better, you are helping butterflies. Enjoy.

I had forgotten about this thread. You are correct, the plant in question did turn out to be the A. tuberosa. It seems the other one I had that had been labeled tuberosa was in fact a yellow/gold curassavaca. As that one grew and developed it looked much different from when it was young, that that is what had puzzled me.

Oh, dear. I hadn't looked at the date of your original post. Sorry. But now I am less convinced and more confused. Here on ATP in the Plant Database there is Butterfly Weed (Asclepias curassavica 'Silky Gold'). Silly me. In my mind it was Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica 'Silky Gold'). So I am totally confused. And probably confusing everyone else. So I probably won't pursue this any further. Nap time.
But just for y'all, here's the picture I had planned to post. Note the little aphids on it.

Is that white fly on it as well?

I think it's A. tuberosa.

A. Tuberosa.
Alice, we may be looking at a location thing here with the "spreading look", "upright" thing. I have 2 and while they were both originally looking like upright versions, they are now more of a spreading version. You & I are both way south while Jeanie is in MN. I got mine from Santa Rosa in little 4" pots last fall & they took off gangbusters to where I raised 30 some odd monarch cats on them this year & didn't run out of leaves! Mine make seed pods like mad!
Milkweed is notorious for aphids as well as milkweed bugs.

Ann, location may well be the key. Congrats on raising the Monarchs. I have only seen one so far this year and I did not have good luck with the eggs.
A local naturalist has told me the monarchs that come through here actually seem to prefer the curassavaca which was a surprise to me. He told me the local observers found they pretty much ignored the tuberosa. I wonder that too is a location issue.

I believe it's entirely possible the type of milkweed is a location issue.