Ascleias that grow in water

I was out walking to pooch and came upon some Milkweed pods that were open already... nothing left of the plant except a dry 'stick'.
So- i have no idea which milkweed it is....

any idea how many will grow in water? It's sort of a marshy detention pond with lots of cat tails. .. probably 4-5 feet tall.

TIA,

Terese

That's probably an Asclepias incarnata (the swamp milkweed that grows here) or a close northern relative.

They have very nice pinkish flowers in summer, which you wouldn't remind you of a milkweed. Great plant for wetter than average areas, though they don't have to have standing water.

Here's the link to the PlantFiles entry:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/539/

Thanks... that is one that i had looked into... but i guess i wont know for sure til i germinate some and see what comes up.

i just didnt know how many would actually grow in water.

Any idea if "Common" MW will grow under those conditions?

though the Swamp one is prettier.

I'd be amazed if one were to find common milkweed (that'd be Asclepias syriaca, I think) in standing water. It is most commonly found on well-drained to rather droughty sites. That's where it occurs all over the Valley, here.

VV -- how do the seed pods vary?

the ones i plucked off looked all "nobby like" like the commons ones.

I'm really not all that familiar with all the various asclepias ... I've only had the asclepias curassavica for two yeas now.... and i'm just starting to get more seeds for different ones.

Terese

Swamp milkweed pods are relatively smooth. They may be slightly "ribbed", but they don't have the knobby bumps that common milkweed pods have. Also, swamp milkweed pods are roughly the same length as common milkweed pods, but only about half as wide, so they have a much thinner and more delicate appearance.

I'm guessing by the pod... these were common.... but -- they were literally in the water.
I'm sure i still have the pods, unless they blew away last night...

here's the seed pod

I can't honestly say I've done any compare/contrast with surface qualities of milkweed seed pods, but I'd be inclined to agree with KSBaptisia on the relative widths.

And nature goes out of its way to make us fools...just because it doesn't usually grow there, doesn't mean common milkweed can't grow in water. I'd plan on using it in drier places and relegate the riparian and wetland species to the inundation zones.

Well, if i can find this threads next year... i will post the results of the seeds.

ya figure.... this plant very well could have been 'on the edge' of the detention pond... we got a TON of rain this fall
[record 9inches in 36 hrs] in Sept. So, maybe some of that water is still there, and that is why i found the MW in water.

Thanks for all your input.

That's either common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) or showy milkweed (A. speciosa). I honestly can only tell the two species apart when they are in flower, but given that showy milkweed has only been recorded from one location in Illinois, near Chicago, it is almost certainly common milkweed.

One word of caution, many species of milkweed make great garden plants but neither common milkweed nor showy milkweed are in that category.

I'm about 30 miles west of Chicago.
I did not see this in bloom, so i cant help out there either. and yea ... I'm aware that I really wouldnt want this in my nice flower beds... but i have areas where i can plant this and watch it grow. I dont have a lot of "Common" by me, but off farther in the field north of me... but i'd rather have these then cutleaf teasal.

Teasel? DieDieDieDieDieDie....

oh... dont i wish.... i wish i knew of something that actually kills these things.

I'd love to have the field 'control burned' but there are critters that live there, and i dont want to disrupt them.
just maybe if the teasel would stay in it's side of the field and not encroach on mine.

I love swamp milkweed--it is pretty and smells wonderful. It was growing on our property when DH and I first bought it but it was all destroyed when we had our property bulldozed :-( Next year I hope to find some growing wild and save some seeds from it so I can put some in my butterfly garden. If that's what you got seed from tcs, I'm sure you're going to just love it when it blooms!