Apocynaceae Family | Beautiful Flower Pictures Blog

Common Milkweed – asclepias syriaca

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jul 16, 2012 | Apocynaceae Family, Flowers

I don’t know about you – but milkweed was one of the first native plants I learned about – long before I even knew what a native plant was. I just remember seeing the round balls of blossoms and having lots of fun blowing around the seeds from the milkweed pods in the fall. I’m not even sure if I knew that they were the same plant – but I certainly knew what they were.

Common Milkweed – asclepias syriaca- is a very common and useful wildflower. Native to most of the US and Canada, milkweed is a member of the Asclepiadaceae family. Another popular member of this family is butterfly weed. Milkweed grows to about 6 feet tall – with multiple balls of blossoms on each stalk. The balls of blossoms I photographed were about 4 inches in diameter.

The flowers of the milkweed and other members of the Asclepiadaceae family are very distinctive. Each flower has five parts with inward curving horns at the top – and outward curving umbels below. Common milkweed blooms in late spring through mid-summer.

Milkweed has a long history of being a very useful plant – not just for humans – but also for wildlife. The fluffy seeds of the milkweed pods were used by early settlers to stuff mattresses and pillows. During World War II, the fluff was used in life preservers and uniform linings. The fibers can be used to create paper, thread and cloth, while various dyes have been made from the juice. While eating large quantities of milkweed can be poisonous, it has been used to flavor soups and the tender spring stalks were eaten as a vegetable.

Milkweed has been used medicinally for centuries. Native Americans used it to treat everything from warts to stomach ailments. Some tribes used is as a contraceptive. Milkweeds also contain latex – which means the juice can be used as an instant wound covering. The family name for these useful flowers comes from Asclepius – the Greek hero of medical arts.

In the natural world, milkweed plays a vital role in the circle of life. Larvae of several species of butterflies, including monarchs, feed on the leaves – which helps make the caterpillars and butterflies toxic to birds. Once the caterpillar emerges from it’s cocoon, the butterflies feed on the nectar of the milkweed plants.

More information about Common Milkweed is available on the following websites

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Missouri Botanical Gardens

Native American Ethnobotany

Native Plant Network

Robert Freckman Herbarium – UW Stevens Point

USDA Plant Profiles

Giant Stapela – stapelia gigantea

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 25, 2012 | Apocynaceae Family, Flowers

Last November, I photographed a very unusual flower at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, DC – it was Giant Stapela (Stapelia gigantea). They are also known as carrion plants – a well-deserved name given how they smell! The best description of how they smell is rotting flesh of a dead animal. This smell attracts the flies which are essential for pollination.

Giant Stapela’s are native to Africa – found from Tanzania to South Africa. The pale yellow with reddish-striped flowers resemble large five-armed starfish, which can grow up to 10 – 16″ across. The one I photographed was at least 10″ wide.

Eastern Bluestar – Amsonia tabernaemontana

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 10, 2011 | Apocynaceae Family, Flowers, Wildflowers

Last spring I discovered a beautiful light blue wildflower growing in Tennessee. With a little research, I learned that it Eastern Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana), a member of the Dogbane (Apocynaceae) family. I photographed the Eastern Bluestar at Reflection Riding Arboretum and Chicamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, both in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Eastern Bluestar is a perennial that grows up to 3 feet tall with multi-stemmed clumps of blue flowers. The flowers are tubular at the base, flaring out into a five petaled star. Each flower is less than an inch across.

Also known as Willow Amsonia, Blue Dogbane, and Woodland Bluestar, Eastern Bluestar is native to much of the southern and eastern United States, growing as far west as Texas and as far north as New York. It is listed as threatened in Kentucky and of special concern in Tennessee.

Eastern Bluestar thrives in many home gardens as a low-maintenance plant that prefers full sun to partial shade. In the spring, it has lovely blue blossoms, in the fall turn golden yellow. It is hardy from zones 3 through 9.

The genus Amsonia is named after a 17th century physician, Dr Amson of Gloucester, Virgina. The species is named in honor of Jakobus Theodorus Tabernaemontanus, a 16th-century German herbalist.

Like many members of the Apocynaceae family, Eastern Bluestar contains chemicals that can skin irritations. Eastern Bluestar tends to be only mildly irritating, while other members of the family have been used as everything from medicines to poisons.

If you’d like more information about Eastern Bluestar, you may want to visit the following sites

USDA Plant Profile

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Perennial Resource

Missouri Plants

Illinois Wildflowers

New Photo – Butterflyweed

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jan 11, 2010 | Apocynaceae Family, Flowers, New Photos, Wildflowers

I’ve just added a new photo – Butterflyweed – to my Beautifulflowerpictures.com website. Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa), a member of the milkweed (Asclepiadaceae) family, is a summer blooming wildflower that attracts many butterflies and bees. It’s bright colors are a great addition to a native plant garden. I photographed this butterfly weed at Crabtree Meadows on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina last July.

This photograph is available as a 10X10″ gallery-wrapped canvas. You can order Butterflyweed from my website and I will have it available at shows this year.

Butterflyweed – Asclepias tuberosa

by hankinslawrenceimages | Oct 12, 2008 | Apocynaceae Family, Flowers, Wildflowers

I’ve photographed Butterflyweed twice this year. A type of milkweed, butterflyweed has very distinctive flowers that grow in flat clusters of about 20 flowers.

The first butterflyweed I saw was in northern Florida in early May. It was growing wild and we spotted it while taking the dogs for a walk. I thought it was such an unusual flower that I had to go back and get my camera to take some photos of it.

Over the summer, I saw signs in a couple of gardens indicating that there were butterflyweed plants in the area – but I never found them to photograph.

On Monday, I found a different variety of Butterflyweed at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA. Instead of the orange flowers I saw in Florida, these are varying shades of yellow, orange and red.

In these last two photos, you can see the flower petals opening up out of the the round red balls. The petals are red on the outside and orange on the inside.

Butterflyweed is a perennial flower that butterflies and hummingbirds like. I’m hoping to photograph it next year with some butterflies.

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