Fewflower Milkweed
Asclepias lanceolata
Found in swamps, fresh to slightly brackish marshes, wet pine savannas. FloraQuest, phone app (app page) What its natural habitat tells you
Native to Alabama. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 94%
- Height
- 3–5 feet
- Spread
- 1–12 inches
- Light
- Full sun, Partial shade
- Soil moisture
- Usually moist
Space about 1 ft apart from its recorded spread, about 100 per 100 sq ft. Enter your bed size for a count
Will it fit your yard?
At a glance
- Life cycle
- Perennial
- Leaves
- Deciduous
- Bloom
- January to December
- Fruiting season
- January to December
Recorded in 8 Alabama counties.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.
Open, fire-kept longleaf pine stands over grasses and wildflowers on wet to moist sandy soil.
Who uses this plant?
13CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including AL
Genus host records with ranges including AL · Asclepias
- Danaus plexippusMonarch
- Agathodes monstralisSky-Pointing Moth
- Cycnia collarisUnexpected Cycnia
- Cycnia teneraDelicate Cycnia, Dogbane Tiger Moth
- Danaus gilippusQueen
- Euchaetes egleMilkweed Tussock Moth or Milkweed Tiger Moth
- Hyalophora cecropiaCecropia Silkmoth, Cecropia Moth
- Papaipema nebrisStalk Borer
- Platynota flavedanaBlack-Shaded Platynota
- Pyrrharctia isabellaIsabella Tiger Moth, Banded Woolybear
Show all 13
- Spodoptera frugiperdaFall Armyworm Moth
- Strymon melinusGray Hairstreak
- Pygarctia eglenensis
59BeesSoutheastern regional records
Southeastern regional records · Asclepias
Individual names are not available yet.
Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
0Specialist beesPollen specialists
1BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim
Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Asclepias
- Ortalis vetulaPlain Chachalaca
Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening
No records yet · Ants · Beetles · Flies · Adult butterflies / moths · Other wasps · Other insects
Plant details
- Family
- Apocynaceae
- Hardiness
- Zones 5a–11b
- Flower color
- Yellow, orange, pink or red
- Fruit begins
- January
- Fruit ends
- December
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Growing sources and scope
- Bloom · “January to December” · FloraQuest: Carolinas, Georgia (Southeastern Flora Team), phone app (app page) · Carolinas and Georgia
- Flower color · “Yellow, orange, pink or red” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Fruit begins · “January” · FloraQuest: Carolinas, Georgia (Southeastern Flora Team), phone app (app page) (ranked first; NC Extension Plant Toolbox differs) · Carolinas and Georgia
- Fruit ends · “December” · FloraQuest: Carolinas, Georgia (Southeastern Flora Team), phone app (app page) (ranked first; NC Extension Plant Toolbox differs) · Carolinas and Georgia
- Hardiness · “Zones 5a–11b” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Height · “3–5 feet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Leaves · “Deciduous” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Life cycle · “Perennial” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
- Light · “Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day); Partial shade (direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Tennessee Smart Yards differs)
- Soil · “Moist; Occasionally wet” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox (ranked first; Tennessee Smart Yards differs)
- Spread · “1–12 inches” · NC Extension Plant Toolbox
Conservation status
| Alabama rank | SNR |
|---|---|
| Global rank | G5 |
| AL status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Will it fit your yard?
Check this plant against your county, sun and soil moisture. Conditions are checked in your browser.
Sources
- Alabama Plant Atlas
- USDA PLANTS
- Vascular Plants of North Carolina (NC Natural Heritage Program)
- NatureServe Explorer
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications