Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Aquatic Milkweed - Asclepias perennis   Walter
Members of Apocynaceae:
Members of Asclepias with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Family Apocynaceae
AuthorWalter
DistributionSERNEC has a specimen from UNCC, examined online by the editors, that definitively documents the species for NC. It was collected in Brunswick County in 1991 and had been overlooked all these years. On the other hand, a specimen in another herbarium, collected in 1982 from a different coastal county, is not of this species.

This is a species of the Deep South, occurring from extreme southeastern NC south to central FL, then west to eastern TX; but it has much of its range northward in the Mississippi River region northward to southern IN and southeastern MO.
AbundanceObviously very rare, close to the SC border. It occurs in many or most coastal counties in SC, and thus its discovery in Brunswick County is not unexpected. As the record had been overlooked also by the NCNHP, it is not on their list, but this website clearly sees the species as Significantly Rare in the state, with a rank of [SR-P] (peripheral). The editors have also assigned a State Rank of S1, though it is possible that the site where found in 1991 is now gone and it could be ranked instead as SH.
HabitatThis is a species of milkweed found primarily in swamp forests, often in some standing water and normally in full shade. It also can grow in wet bottomlands, ditches, and other wet places.
PhenologyBlooms from June to August, and fruits from August to September.
IdentificationThis species grows to about 1.5 feet tall, usually in a colony or otherwise a tight group of plants. It has numerous pairs of lanceolate leaves, with a short petiole. The leaves are dark green, entire, and about 4 inches long but only 2/3-wide wide, tapering to a slender tip. It has typically 2-3 small but showy flower clusters (umbels) from the upper leaf axils and summit of the stem, each looking like a white golf ball in appearance, about 1.5-inches across. The many flowers are bright white, making the plants very conspicuous in the often dark and dank places where they grow -- when in full bloom. It is hoped that this species still survives in NC, though it might be necessary to find it from a canoe along a small blackwater creek. Thankfully, it is found in many of SC's lower Coastal Plain counties, though you still might need waders to spot the plants.
Taxonomic CommentsNone

Other Common Name(s)White Swamp Milkweed, White Milkweed
State Rank[S1]
Global RankG5
State Status[SR-P]
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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B.A. SorrieTaylor County, FL, opening in swamp forest. late 1990s. Scan from slide. Photo_non_NCPhoto_non_NC
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