Whorled Milkweed
Asclepias verticillata
White flowers from July into September, worked by brown-belted bumble bees and eastern carpenter bees. Monarch caterpillars feed on its leaves. It grows wild in 48 of Alabama’s 67 counties.
- Light
- Part shade to full sun
- Soil
- Dry to moist soil
- Size
- 1.8 ft to 2.5 ft tall, 1.5 ft wide
- Flowers
- White, Jul to Sep
- Roots
- Spreading rhizomes or runners; reach 4 ft down in open ground
- Kind
- Wildflower
At its grown size
in flowerfruit or seed
What it feeds
- Butterflies
- Host plant for the Monarch
- Caterpillars
- 13 kinds of caterpillars
- Bees
- 59 kinds of native bees
- On its flowers
- Brown-belted bumble bee (Bombus griseocollis), Eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica), Southern plains bumble bee (Bombus fraternus), Giant resin bee (Megachile sculpturalis)
Grows well with
Facts from the Quercus record for Asclepias verticillata.