Asclepias Syrica Flowers

Type of Flowers 

Asclepias Syrica: 

Asclepias syriaca, commonly called common milkweed, butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed, is a species of flowering plant. It is in the genus Asclepias, the milkweeds. This species is native to Southern Canada and of much of the conterminous Eastern U.S., east of the Rocky Mountains, excluding the drier parts of the Prairies. It grows in sandy soils and other kinds of soils in sunny areas. It was one of the earliest North American species described in Cornut's 1635 work Canadensium Plantarum Historia. The specific name was reused by Linnaeus due to Cornut's confusion with a species from Asia Minor.

Common milkweed is a perennial herb growing up to 2.6 m tall from a rhizome. The all parts of common milkweed plants produce white latex when broken. The leaves are opposite or sometimes whorled; simple, broad ovate-lanceolate; up to 25 cm long and 12 cm broad, usually with undulate margins and reddish main veins. They have very short petioles and velvety undersides. 

The fragrant,nectariferous flowers occur in umbellate cymes. Individual flowers are about 1 cm in diameter, each with five cornate hoods and five pollinia. The seeds, each with long, white flossy hairs, occur in large follicles.