Identification of Milkweeds in Texas Guide. 500 observations today!
Hello all,
Thank you so much for providing your observations of milkweeds and monarchs in Texas over the past few months. As of today we have surpassed 500 observations, 29 species observed, and 104 participants. Dr. Ben Hutchins (TPWD Invertebrate Biologist), Dr. Walter Holmes (Botanist, Baylor University), and I just published a guide to Identification of Milkweeds (Asclepias, Family Apocynaceae) in Texas. We will have a PDF version of this document uploaded on the Wildlife Diversity Program at Texas Parks and Wildlife web site very soon and I will send out the link as soon as it’s posted.
My family and I were in Kansas last week and common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) was flowering in mesic to wet areas in many prairie hay meadows. If anyone is up around Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area or Marvin Lake in wet swales along the Canadian River in Hemphill County, this would be a great potential place to re-discover common milkweed in Texas.
Keep on iNat’n milkweeds and monarchs!
Best of regards, Jason Singhurst, TPWD-Botanist
Comments
The link to Identification of Milkweeds (Asclepias, Family Apocynaceae) in Texas is
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/nongame/publications/media/TPWD-Identification-Milkweeds-Texas.pdf
I just noticed a significant editorial mistake.
At the time I am posting this, the word description for A. viridis is incorrect. In fact it is missing. The description under A. viridis is a duplicate of the description for A. viridiflora.
A. Viridis images are correct.
Until the Guide is corrected, here is the A. viridis description from From Shinners and Mahler's Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas, which can be downloaded for free here:
http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/bio/gdiggs/NCTXpdf.htm.
Asclepias viridis Walter, (green), GREEN MILKWEED, ANTELOPE-HORNS. Plant glabrous or upper stem
and young leaves minutely pubescent; stems low-spreading to suberect, usually 25-60 cm long;
leaf blades broadly oblong to ovate, 4-13 cm long, 1.5-6 cm wide; petioles 3-10 mm long; corolla
lobes pale green; gynostegium pale purplish rose; hoods wide-spreading, without horns. Prairies,
ditch banks, pastures, and disturbed ground; se and e TX w to West Cross Timbers and Edwards
Plateau. Apr-Jun, sporadically in summer and fall. [Asclepiodora viridis (Walter) A. Gray] Probably
the most common milkweed in nc TX; sometimes extremely abundant in overgrazed pastures.
Gregg Lee
Add a Comment