Fourleaf Milkweed
Asclepias quadrifolia Jacq.
A delicate spring milkweed of dry oak woodland: a slim stem carrying one whorl of four broad leaves at mid-height and a small airy cluster of pale pink flowers. The earliest milkweed to bloom across much of the East.
Also called Whorled Woodland Milkweed.
- Height
- 1 ft–2 ft
- Spread
- 9 in–1.3 ft
- Flowers
- pink, white
- Bloom
- May to June
- Light
- Part shade, Shade
- Soil moisture
- Dry, Average
- USDA zones
- 4–8
- Leaves
- Whorled, ovate
- Sap
- Milky latex
- Roots
- Deep taproot, resents transplanting
- Stratification
- 30 days cold-moist
- Range
- 27 states
When it flowers
Fourleaf Milkweed blooms May to June, peaking in May.
How to identify it
- A single whorl of four leaves partway up the stem, with opposite pairs above and below it.
- Small, pale pink to nearly white flowers in a loose cluster.
- Under two feet tall, growing in dry woodland shade.
- Flowers in May, weeks before other eastern milkweeds.
Ecology and wildlife value
One of very few milkweeds available to the earliest arriving monarchs in the Appalachians and Ozarks, and useful to spring woodland bees.
Growing fourleaf milkweed
Charming in a woodland garden with dry, well-drained, leafy soil. Goes dormant early. Never dig from the wild; buy nursery-propagated stock.
Seed needs about 30 days of cold-moist stratification. Deep taproot, resents transplanting. See how to plant milkweed seed for the full method.
Cautions
Standard milkweed cautions. More on milkweed toxicity.
Where fourleaf milkweed grows
Recorded in 27 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia.
Distribution is generalized to state level. For county-level maps see USDA PLANTS and BONAP.
References and further reading
Names, ranges and conservation status here are drawn from the databases below. Where those disagree with a regional flora, trust the flora.
- Plants of the World Online 94581-1. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Accepted name, authorship and global distribution.
- GBIF 3170257. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Aggregated occurrence records.
- iNaturalist 129548. Community observations, photographs and phenology.
- Wikipedia. General-audience article on this species.
- BONAP county distribution map. Biota of North America Program. County-level range map.
- NatureServe Explorer. Conservation status ranks at global and state level.
- World Flora Online. Nomenclature and synonymy.
- Woodson, R. E. (1954). The North American species of Asclepias L.. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 41(1): 1–211. The monograph the modern taxonomy of the genus still rests on. View
- Flora of North America Editorial Committee (eds.) (2026). Flora of North America North of Mexico. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford. Accepted names, keys and descriptions for the North American flora. View
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2026). Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Nomenclature and global distribution, keyed to IPNI name identifiers. View
- Kartesz, J. T. (Biota of North America Program) (2026). North American Plant Atlas. BONAP, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. County-level distribution maps, the basis for the ranges generalized here. View
- USDA, NRCS (2026). The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, North Carolina. State-level distribution, wetland status and nomenclature. View
- Agrawal, A. A. (2017). Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution. Princeton University Press. The standard general account of the milkweed and monarch relationship. View
Cite this page
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Milkweed USA. (2026). Fourleaf Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia). Retrieved DATE, from https://milkweedusa.com/species/fourleaf-milkweed/
"Fourleaf Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia)." Milkweed USA, 2026, https://milkweedusa.com/species/fourleaf-milkweed/. Accessed DATE.
Milkweed USA. "Fourleaf Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia)." Last modified 2026-08-01. Accessed DATE. https://milkweedusa.com/species/fourleaf-milkweed/.
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title = {Fourleaf Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/species/fourleaf-milkweed/},
note = {Accessed DATE}
}