Common Name: swamp milkweed
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Apocynaceae
Zone: 3 to 9
Height: 3.00 to 4.00 feet
Spread: 1.50 to 2.00 feet
Bloom Time: July to August
Bloom Description: White
Sun: Full sun
Water: Medium to wet
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Rain Garden
Flower: Showy, Fragrant
Attracts: Hummingbirds, Butterflies
Tolerate: Deer, Clay Soil, Wet Soil
Culture
Easily grown in medium to wet soils in full sun. Surprisingly tolerant of average well-drained soils in cultivation even though the species is native to swamps and wet meadows. Plants have deep taproots and are best left undisturbed once established. Foliage is slow to emerge in spring.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Asclepias incarnata, commonly called swamp milkweed, is an erect, clump-forming, Missouri native plant which is commonly found in swamps, river bottomlands and wet meadows throughout the State. It typically grows 3-4' tall (less frequently to 5') on branching stems. Small, fragrant, pink to mauve flowers (1/4" wide), each with five reflexed petals and an elevated central crown, appear in tight clusters (umbels) at the stem ends in summer. Flowers are uncommonly white. Narrow, lance-shaped, taper-pointed leaves are 3-6" long. Stems exude a toxic milky sap when cut. Flowers are followed by attractive seed pods (to 4" long) which split open when ripe releasing silky-haired seeds easily carried by the wind. Flowers are very attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds as a nectar source. In addition, swamp milkweed is a food source for the larval stage of monarch butterflies.
Genus name honors the Greek god Asklepios the god of medicine.
Specific epithet means flesh-colored.
'Ice Ballet' typically grows 3-3.5' tall and is basically a compact, white-flowered form of the pink/mauve-flowered Missouri native species.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.
Uses
Sunny borders, stream/pond banks, butterfly gardens. A good plant for low spots or other moist areas in the landscape.