☛This family is now generally included as the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the family Apocynaceae.
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa).
One of our brightest and most beloved wild flowers,
and one of the very few bright orange flowers to
decorate our roadsides. Butterfly-weed blooms at about
the same time as the Daylily (Hemerocallis fulva),
and if possible out-oranges it along our highways and
byways. This is a favorite plant of the Monarch
butterfly, itself bright orange to match its favorite
flower.
Rose Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata).
Also called Swamp Milkweed because of its preference
for damp areas, but this is an adaptable plant, and it
can be found at the edge of a moist woods as well. It
is sometimes cultivated in gardens for its showy
rose-colored flowers, which grow up on top where you
can see them, rather than half-hidden like the flowers
of Common Milkweed.
Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).
This distinctively odd-looking plant is a common sight
along the road or at the edges of fields in late June.
The plants stand straight and tall; the flowers form
umbels in almost perfect spheres. From a distance
their color resembles the color that used to be called
“flesh” in children’s crayon boxes.