Southern Milkweed
Asclepias viridula Chapm.
A rare wet-savanna milkweed of the Florida panhandle and south Georgia, with narrow leaves and small greenish-white flowers, tracked as threatened across its small range.
- Height
- 1 ft–2.5 ft
- Spread
- 8 in–1.2 ft
- Flowers
- green, white
- Bloom
- May to August
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil moisture
- Wet
- USDA zones
- 8–9
- Leaves
- Opposite, narrow
- Sap
- Milky latex
- Roots
- Fibrous, clump-forming and easy to move
- Stratification
- 30 days cold-moist
- Range
- 2 states
When it flowers
Southern Milkweed blooms May to August, peaking in June and July.
How to identify it
- Slender upright stems in permanently damp pine savanna and bog edges.
- Small greenish-white flowers in sparse clusters.
- Restricted to the eastern Gulf coastal plain.
Ecology and wildlife value
Dependent on frequently burned wet savanna, a habitat reduced to fragments across the Gulf coastal plain.
Growing southern milkweed
Rare and state-tracked. Do not collect from the wild.
Seed needs about 30 days of cold-moist stratification. Fibrous, clump-forming and easy to move. See how to plant milkweed seed for the full method.
Cautions
Rare and legally tracked in Florida and Georgia. More on milkweed toxicity.
Where southern milkweed grows
Recorded in 2 states: Florida, Georgia.
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 94738-1. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Accepted name, authorship and global distribution.
- GBIF 3170279. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Aggregated occurrence records.
- iNaturalist 158764. 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). Southern Milkweed (Asclepias viridula). Retrieved DATE, from https://milkweedusa.com/species/southern-milkweed/
"Southern Milkweed (Asclepias viridula)." Milkweed USA, 2026, https://milkweedusa.com/species/southern-milkweed/. Accessed DATE.
Milkweed USA. "Southern Milkweed (Asclepias viridula)." Last modified 2026-08-01. Accessed DATE. https://milkweedusa.com/species/southern-milkweed/.
@misc{milkweedusa_speciessouthernmilkweed,
title = {Southern Milkweed (Asclepias viridula)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/species/southern-milkweed/},
note = {Accessed DATE}
}