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Other Names:Scientific Name: Asclepias incarnata L.
Plant Family: Asclepiadaceae
Botanical Description: herbaceousStems: single or clustered, slender and erect, 1 - 4 feet tall, very leafy, branched toward top, with milky juice
Leaves: opposite, long (4 - 7 inch), narrow, oblong but tapering to a point, smooth or hairy, short petiole
Roots: weakly creeping rootstocks
Flowers: often red, pink to rose-purple or whitish, many flowers clustered into ball-like umbel at stem tips, bloom July - September
Seeds: Seed pod stands erect on short stem and is about 3 inches long, smooth or slightly hairy. Seed is oval or pear-shaped, somewhat flat, about 3/8 inch long, with tuft of hairs at tip.
Seedling: Seed leaves are about 0.5 inch long and 0.25 inch wide, oblong, smooth, hairless, and with few veins. Leaves are opposite, have tiny hairs along smoothly wavy edges and veins beneath, and are long, pointed and lance-shaped. Leaves bend upward on either side of the prominent midvein, like a boat keel. Stem is brown or purply, with a velvety band of hairs extending downward from the junction of leaves on each side of stem. Cutting or breaking the stem reveals a loose, pithy central canal developing.
Poisonous to some animals if eaten.
Reproduction: perennialPropagation: seed, underground rootstocks
Dispersal: wind
State: Found throughout Wisconsin.National: Common in all but Florida and the western states.
Origin: native of North America
Common in ditch edges, dikes, swamps, wet prairies, and poorly drained spots. Persistence severely inhibited by cultivation.
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% swamp milkweed, 10% boneset and joe-pye weed mix.
Dana, M. 1987. Cranberry Weeds in Wisconsin. Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 2.
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. 205-06.
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. 232.
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. 136.
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