Pinewoods Milkweed
Asclepias humistrata Walter
One of the most beautiful foliage plants in the genus: sprawling stems of thick blue-gray clasping leaves veined in bright pink, lying flat on white sand under longleaf pine, topped with pale pink-white flowers in spring.
Also called Sandhill Milkweed, Purple Milkweed.
- Height
- 8 in–2 ft
- Spread
- 1.5 ft–3 ft
- Flowers
- pink, white
- Bloom
- March to June
- Light
- Full sun, Part shade
- Soil moisture
- Dry
- USDA zones
- 7–10
- Leaves
- Opposite, clasping
- Sap
- Milky latex
- Roots
- Deep taproot, resents transplanting
- Stratification
- None needed
- Range
- 7 states
When it flowers
Pinewoods Milkweed blooms March to June, peaking in April and May.
How to identify it
- Leaves waxy blue-gray with vivid pink or magenta veins, and unmistakable for it.
- Stems lie flat along the ground, radiating from a central taproot.
- Grows only in deep dry sand, typically in longleaf pine sandhill.
- Blooms very early, from March.
Ecology and wildlife value
The single most important spring monarch host in the Southeast’s sandhill country, and heavily used by the returning migration as it crosses Florida and Georgia.
Growing pinewoods milkweed
Needs pure sand and full sun; impossible in heavy soil. Fresh seed germinates without stratification.
Seed needs no cold stratification and can be sown fresh. Deep taproot, resents transplanting. See how to plant milkweed seed for the full method.
Cautions
Standard milkweed cautions. More on milkweed toxicity.
Where pinewoods milkweed grows
Recorded in 7 states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina.
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 94346-1. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Accepted name, authorship and global distribution.
- GBIF 3170319. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Aggregated occurrence records.
- iNaturalist 128756. 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
This page is licensed CC BY 4.0. Quote it, adapt it and reuse it, including commercially, as long as you credit Milkweed USA and link back.
Milkweed USA. (2026). Pinewoods Milkweed (Asclepias humistrata). Retrieved DATE, from https://milkweedusa.com/species/pinewoods-milkweed/
"Pinewoods Milkweed (Asclepias humistrata)." Milkweed USA, 2026, https://milkweedusa.com/species/pinewoods-milkweed/. Accessed DATE.
Milkweed USA. "Pinewoods Milkweed (Asclepias humistrata)." Last modified 2026-08-01. Accessed DATE. https://milkweedusa.com/species/pinewoods-milkweed/.
@misc{milkweedusa_speciespinewoodsmilkweed,
title = {Pinewoods Milkweed (Asclepias humistrata)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/species/pinewoods-milkweed/},
note = {Accessed DATE}
}