Butterfly Milkweed Seeds (Asclepias tuberosa)

A native milkweed of the East, Midwest, and Southwestern U.S., butterfly milkweed is a specimen garden plant of tremendous appeal – one that can adapt to a lot of different places without becoming invasive outside of its native range.

Rather distinctive among milkweeds, this is a plant that forms a kind of compact multi-stemmed shape with dense, brilliantly orange mid-summer blossoms that constantly hum with insect activity.

Indeed early 20^th century honey bee keepers considered this one of the most prolific nectar plants available where it occurred (historically from New England to the desert Southwest) – producing dozens of pounds of surplus single varietal honey per hive during peak nectar flows.

Among wild pollinators, butterfly milkweed attracts large numbers of butterflies, and numerous butterflies, and of course is a host plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars.

This is plant that prefers somewhat sandy, well-drained soils, as well as a bit of summer heat – although in arid regions it usually occurs near water.

Although there are a few ornamental varieties of this plant available from other nurseries, we thing the wild type (which is what we offer) is still the most visually captivating and most attractive to scores of flower visitors.

Approximately 200 seeds. (1.0 grams).