BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Asclepias incarnata | Swamp Milkweed 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Swamp milkweed is an erect plant, 11 to 18 inches (0.3-0.5 m) tall, with
milky sap.  It has a short rootstock or caudex with shallow fibrous
roots.  A plant may have one to several leafy stems.  Its lance-shaped,
opposite leaves have short stalks.  Flowers have many elaborate
structures (e.g., hoods and horns) and are arranged in flesh-colored
terminal umbels [23].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Hemicryptophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Swamp milkweed readily germinates from seed shed the previous year (50
to 88 percent germination [11]) after cold stratification, 39 degrees
Fahrenheit (4 deg C), for approximately 9 months.  A plant puts up an
average of one stem from a short caudex and sprouts each year from this
rootstock.  Flowers are insect pollinated (Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera)
[10].  Seeds have long hairs that facilitate wind dispersal in the fall.
Swamp milkweed is self-fertile [8].  It very rarely reproduces asexually
by rhizomes [8].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Swamp milkweed is a semiaquatic plant [3].  It occurs in a range of wet
conditions from standing water to saturated soil.  A riparian species,
it is found on streambanks, pond shores, banks, and floodplains of
lakes, waterways, marshes, swamps, and wet areas of prairies
[6,13,18,21].  Additionally, it occurs in wet meadows and in low wet
woods [23].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Swamp milkweed is a colonizer.  It has wind-dispersed seeds and can
self-fertilize.


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Across its range, swamp milkweed begins to flower during the last week
of June or the first week in July and continues until August or
September [2,6,15,18,21,23].  Individual flowers remain open for about 1
week [9].  Fruits mature from August through October [2,6,15,18,21,23].
After maturation, follicles split open on one side to release seeds
during October and November [23].

Related categories for Species: Asclepias incarnata | Swamp Milkweed