MilkweedUSA

Native Subspecies of Swamp Milkweed

Hairy Swamp Milkweed

Asclepias incarnata subsp. pulchra (Ehrh. ex Willd.) Woodson

The coastal plain swamp milkweed east of the Appalachians: hairier throughout, broader in the leaf and darker in the flower than the common subspecies.

How to tell it apart

Densely hairy all over, stems and leaves alike, with short leaf stalks and broader leaves. Flowers are a deeper pink and the anthers are brown rather than green.

Compare with subsp. incarnata. Everything else about the plant, including how to grow it and what it is worth to monarchs, is on the swamp milkweed page.

Where it grows

A coastal plain plant from Nova Scotia to Georgia, with outlying collections in eastern Texas. A record from western Illinois is probably a mislabelled locality or a waif. The name is often written as a variety, but that combination was never validly published at varietal rank.

Alaska: not recorded Maine: recorded Vermont: recorded New Hampshire: recorded Washington: not recorded Idaho: not recorded Montana: not recorded North Dakota: not recorded Minnesota: not recorded Illinois: not recorded Wisconsin: not recorded Michigan: not recorded New York: recorded Massachusetts: recorded Rhode Island: recorded Oregon: not recorded Nevada: not recorded Wyoming: not recorded South Dakota: not recorded Iowa: not recorded Indiana: not recorded Ohio: not recorded Pennsylvania: recorded New Jersey: recorded Connecticut: recorded California: not recorded Utah: not recorded Colorado: not recorded Nebraska: not recorded Missouri: not recorded Kentucky: not recorded West Virginia: not recorded Virginia: recorded Maryland: recorded Delaware: recorded Arizona: not recorded New Mexico: not recorded Kansas: not recorded Arkansas: not recorded Tennessee: not recorded North Carolina: recorded South Carolina: recorded District of Columbia: recorded Texas: recorded Oklahoma: not recorded Louisiana: not recorded Mississippi: not recorded Alabama: not recorded Georgia: recorded Hawaii: not recorded Florida: recorded
Recorded in 18 states. Shading is generalized to whole states.

Distribution follows the Flora of North America treatment, United States only. Swamp Milkweed as a whole is recorded in 46 states.

Flowering

Hairy Swamp Milkweed blooms June to September, peaking in July and August. Plants reach 1 ft–4.9 ft.

Other names

This plant has also been published as Asclepias pulchra, Asclepias incarnata var. neoscotica. Those names refer to the same taxon and you will meet them in older floras and in some databases.

References

The description, distribution and synonymy here follow Mark Fishbein’s treatment of Asclepias in Flora of North America vol. 14 (2023).

Cite this page

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APA Milkweed USA. (2026). Hairy Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata subsp. pulchra). Retrieved DATE, from https://milkweedusa.com/species/swamp-milkweed/pulchra/
MLA "Hairy Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata subsp. pulchra)." Milkweed USA, 2026, https://milkweedusa.com/species/swamp-milkweed/pulchra/. Accessed DATE.
Chicago Milkweed USA. "Hairy Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata subsp. pulchra)." Last modified 2026-08-01. Accessed DATE. https://milkweedusa.com/species/swamp-milkweed/pulchra/.
BibTeX @misc{milkweedusa_speciesswampmilkweedpulchra, title = {Hairy Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata subsp. pulchra)}, author = {{Milkweed USA}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://milkweedusa.com/species/swamp-milkweed/pulchra/}, note = {Accessed DATE} }