{"id":7740,"date":"2016-06-21T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T16:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=7740"},"modified":"2015-07-15T21:38:19","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T01:38:19","slug":"butterfly-weed-long-lived-flowering-perennial-that-nourish-monarchs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2016\/06\/21\/butterfly-weed-long-lived-flowering-perennial-that-nourish-monarchs\/","title":{"rendered":"Butterfly Weed &#8211; Long-lived Flowering Perennial That Nourish Monarchs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7741\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DSC_0112.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7741\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7741\" alt=\"Long-lived Butterfly Weed at Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DSC_0112-300x198.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DSC_0112-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DSC_0112-1024x678.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7741\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Long-lived Butterfly Weed at Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Milkweed (<i>Asclepias tuberosa<\/i>), aka butterfly weed,\u00a0is a tuberous rooted perennial native in the Eastern and southern U.S. (USDA hardiness zones 3 to 9). It grows in dry\/rocky open woodlands, prairies, farm fields, and along roadsides. Individual plants typically grow as a clump to 1- 3 feet high and 1 \u00bd feet wide. Unlike many of the other milkweeds (<i>Asclepias spp<\/i>.), the sap is not milky.<\/p>\n<p>For almost six weeks, from late spring into summer, clusters of vibrant orange to yellow-orange flowers (umbels)\u00a0cover the plant canopy. The narrow, lance-shaped leaves are attached to hairy stems. Flowers are an important\u00a0nectar source for many butterfly species and leaves are a key food source for the caterpillars (larvae) of monarch butterflies.<\/p>\n<p>Butterfly weed freely self-seeds in the landscape. Prominent 3 &#8211; 6 inch long spindle-shaped seed pods break open when ripe and release multitudes of silky-tailed seeds which may carry a long way by wind. Seed pods may be utilized in dried flower arrangements.<\/p>\n<p>Butterfly weed is a prairie survivor. It grows in average, dry to medium, well-drained soils in full sun. It does well in poor, dry soils, and established plants are highly drought tolerant. Shoots emerge late in the spring and grow rapidly. It frequently included in butterfly gardens, meadows, prairies, or other plantings.<\/p>\n<p>Plants are easily\u00a0started from seed, but\u00a0may take 2 &#8211; 3 years before flowering. Do not try to dig up\u00a0plants in the wild as they rarely survive transplanting due to their deep taproot system.\u00a0Seedlings are\u00a0best left undisturbed once established, usually after two years.<\/p>\n<p>Few disease and insect problems trouble butterfly weed if grown in the right location. Wet, poorly-drained soil leads to rot rots. Leaves are susceptible to rust and leaf spots, particularly if the ground is overplanted. Pesticide use is rarely warranted. In medical circles the plant is commonly called \u201cpleurisy root\u201d, once used to treat lung inflammations.<\/p>\n<p>Their bright orange flower clusters are among our showiest native wildflowers and picked for floral arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), aka butterfly weed,\u00a0is a tuberous rooted perennial native in the Eastern and southern U.S. (USDA hardiness zones 3 to 9). It grows in dry\/rocky open woodlands, prairies, farm fields, and along roadsides. Individual plants typically grow as a clump to 1- 3 feet high and 1 \u00bd feet wide. Unlike many of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,1124,1218,747,749,1122,778,806,774,1097,627,625,843,975,1059,159,1220,777,630,705,706,113,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7740"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7824,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7740\/revisions\/7824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}