Butterfly Weed

Latin Name: Asclepias tuberosa

Type: Forb/Flower

Light: Sun

Moisture: Dry / Dry-Mesic / Mesic

Soil: Sand / Loam

Size: 2-3 feet

Color: Orange

Bloom Time: June / July / August

Description: This is one beautiful milkweed and one of the most striking of the prairie wildflowers! It's brilliant orange color is a magnet for all sorts of butterflies. Like all milkweeds it is an important food source for Monarch butterflies. It looks great in a prairie garden as well as a sunny perennial garden. It thrives in dry, sandy soils and well-drained loam. Butterfly weed can tolerate clay, but it's growth is slower. This looks fabulous with New Jersery Tea and lavender hyssop (a non-native).