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COMMON MILKWEED

NOMENCLATURE

Other Names:

Scientific Name: Asclepias syriaca L.

 Plant Family: Asclepiadaceae

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

Botanical Description: herbaceous

 Stems: stout and erect, 2 - 5 feet tall, covered with short downy hairs, contain milky juice Leaves: opposite, oblong, rounded, 4 - 8 inches long with prominent veins, upper surface smooth, lower surfaces covered with short white hairs

 Roots: thick, horizontal rhizome rootstocks with sparse lateral roots

 Flowers: sweet-smelling, pink to white, in large many-flowered spherical clusters at the tips of stems and in the axils of upper leaves, bloom July - September

 Seeds: Seed pod is grayish, hairy and covered with soft spiny projections. Seed is about 0.25 inch long, brown, flat, pear-shaped, with tuft of silky white hairs attached to tip and a dull, papery surface.

Seedling: Seed leaves are oblong, 0.5 to 0.75 inches long and about 0.25 inches long. Leaves are lance-shaped, opposite, thick, and dull or bluish green. Leaves have curved hairs along the edges and bend upward on either side of the prominent midvein, like a boat keel. Stem is fibrous and hairy.

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE

LIFE CYCLE

Reproduction: perennial

 Propagation: seed and creeping rhizomes

 Dispersal: wind, tillage equipment, rhizome contamination in cuttings

 

DISTRIBUTION

State: Found throughout Wisconsin.

 National: Common throughout the Atlantic, east central, midcentral and midwest states.

 Origin: native of North America

 

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Common in cultivated fields, pastures, open woods, wetlands and roadsides. Often found along ditch edges and dikes.

SCOUTING PROCEDURE/ET

While scouting a cranberry bed for disease and insect pests, identify weed populations as they arise. Note the specie(s) of weed present as well as the population level relative to field area. Example: 20% common milkweed and swamp milkweed mix, 10% joe-pye weed mix.

 

REFERENCES

Davis, L. W. 1993. Weed Seeds of the Great Plains: A Handbook for Identification. Cooperative Extension Service of Kansas State University, University Press of Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas. p. 77.

 Kummer, A. P. 1951. Weed Seedlings. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, U.S.A. pp. 207-08.

 Kummer, L. D., T. G. Dittl, and T. D. Planer. 1993. Wisconsin Cranberry Weeds. Wisconsin Cranberry Board, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. p. 14. Lorenzi, H. J. and L. S. Jeffery. 1987. Weeds of the United States and Their Control. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, New York. p. 233.

 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1981. Weeds of the North Central States: North Central Regional Research Publication No. 281. College of Agriculture, Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin 772. p. 137.

 

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