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Mead's milkweed

Mead's milkweed (Asclepias meadii)
Illinois Status: state endangered, federally threatened, native
Photo © Christopher David Benda

Features and Behaviors

FEATURES
Mead’s milkweed is less than two feet in height. Paired leaves are arranged opposite each other on the stem. Seedpods are about four inches in length. The flowers are positioned at the stem tip and are white to pale green in color.

BEHAVIORS
Mead's milkweed flowers May through June. It grows in southern, northeastern and central sections of Illinois. Mead’s milkweed can be found in some mesic prairies and sandstone bluffs, but it is not common anywhere in the state or in its national range. The flower cluster nods downward. It is endangered in Illinois and threatened federally.

Illinois Range

Taxonomy

​Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Gentianales
Family: Apocynaceae

Habitats

Prairie and Edge Habitats
gravel prairie; hill prairie; sand prairie; shrub prairie