Index / Search / Asclepias speciosa
§1 Plant — species · Asclepiadaceae
Asclepias speciosa Torr.
vernacular showy milkweed
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Asclepiadaceae Borkh.
- Genus
- Asclepias
§2a
Native status, by region
- CAN Canada Native
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Low
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- High
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -33 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 90 min.
- Precipitation
- 16–30 in/yr
- pH range
- 5–7
- Root depth
- 18 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Lifespan
- Long
- Mature height
- 6 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Moderate
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- White
- Fruit colour
- Black
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- Slight
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Early Summer
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Moderate
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 72,000
- Propagation
- seed, container
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- Yes
- Palatable, human
- No
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Montana distribution
Recorded in 31 of 56 Montana counties.
Native · 31 counties
- Big Horn 30003
- Blaine 30005
- Carbon 30009
- Carter 30011
- Cascade 30013
- Custer 30017
- Daniels 30019
- Fallon 30025
- Gallatin 30031
- Garfield 30033
- Golden Valley 30037
- Lewis and Clark 30049
- Lincoln 30053
- McCone 30055
- Musselshell 30065
- Park 30067
- Petroleum 30069
- Phillips 30071
- Powder River 30075
- Prairie 30079
- Richland 30083
- Roosevelt 30085
- Rosebud 30087
- Sheridan 30091
- Stillwater 30095
- Sweet Grass 30097
- Teton 30099
- Treasure 30103
- Valley 30105
- Wibaux 30109
- Yellowstone 30111
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/ASSP ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/3170260 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25
fetched 2026-05-25T16:28:53Z