Perennial Milkweed SEED Asclepias syriaca.

Perennial Milkweed SEED Asclepias syriaca.

Large-leaved, herbaceous perennial. Starts to leaf in May, through the summer until autumn. Reputedly invasive but we have not found it so. This species produces the largest and most abundant leaves of all the foodplants for the Milkweed Butterfly (Monarch). It grows well outside: the stems dying down after flowering, and reappearing in spring each year. In a greenhouse the growth can be enormous! 

The flowers are highly attractive to pollinating insects. From the globular flowerheads, conical seedpods emerge, covered with tubercles. When ripe these split open, freeing a cloud of windborne seeds. In their native American habitat, this is the main way the plant is distributed. It is not found wild in Europe.