Asclepias of this specie grow in many states, here in Texas and in Missouri that I know for sure. Last time I went through Missouri,(1996) it was all along the highways. It grows from tubers or a large root. I was told that they were tinder and didn't like to be moved, but mine did better after I moved it than before. I did mix in a bit of composted sheep manure in the bed when I divided it. Then I found out that what I thought was an Asclepia tuberosa, according to members of the rec.gardens news group, was not Asclepia tuberosa, but another of many different species of Asclepia [milkweed] and, the plant named Asclepia tuberosa actually has a long tap root rather than a tuber like this one.

A full, mature plant will be a bush about 18 inches to 2 feet tall topped with the pale orange blooms. The seed pods are like other milk weed pods, resembling a long pointed bean pod, larger at stem end, tapering to a point,pop open when ripe and the seeds with down are distributed by the wind similar to Dandelions. Butterflys are drawn to the plant. 

The sap is not as milky as most milk-weeds, very little in fact. There are not many around in my immediate area that I have access to except for 3 or 4 plants in a vacant lot on the other side of the hill. There was only one plant there last year. Looks like more this year. I will have to wait until they have propagated. .

While this particular plant grows wild in some parts of Texas, cultivars of various shades of reds to yellows can be found in some seed catalogs.

19 Mar 1999
Today's walk in my yard, as usual, netted me a few blessings! Twenty years ago, near the top of the hill near the driveway, a small stragley thorny whip of a plant grew beside a fairly tall oak. I was clearing under-brush from the area and members of my family wanted me to destroy the little whip figuring it would just be a nuisance. I don't like to kill anything without a reason, and for some reason, probably because the pretty little leaves interested me, I felt this little slip of a plant needed to be nurtured. For more than 15 years I have been rewarded each spring with a lovely canopy of green leaves and beautifully white pom-poms of delicate blooms. Later in the year a harvest of tiny little apples smaller than a goosberry are available for the visiting birds. Here is a scan of one small cluster. Imagine thousands of these! And guess what! Another began growing just my side of my north property line and I think I have convinced my neighbors not to cut it down. I have been unable to find anything other than a redhaw that looks anything like it SOOOooo.. I call it a Texas Redhaw or Hawthorne. Will appreciate any information about this plant.

11 Nov 1999 I received a note from Henriette Kress, an herbalist and, I think , a botanist, saying,'...yep, that's a characteristic Crataegus leaf. And the flowers and fruit do look like smaller apples.' Henrietta of Helsinki, Finland has a TERRIFIC web site with a lot of information and a couple thousand photographs of plants and adding more all the time.Thanks, Henriette..

 

AND..Since I am updating this anyway, I just dashed out and twicked a twig from the tree and scanned the fruit and here they are, life size. They are a shiny, brighter red than shown, but are almost exact size of sprig.
 

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30 Apr 1998
Today I was able to scan just a few ! I wanted to scan a lot of the area's wild beauties this spring. Because of health reasons, I missed some of the ones, like the lovely blue-eyed grass that grows down by the lake and at the upper driveway. They are all bloomed out as I write this, and I am limited as to what I can do partly because of the time element. But, as I can... here are a few. I plucked them, put them in the scanner and here they are.

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30 Apr 1998  Yellow Wood Sorrel has a wide growth range. It grew in the fields and woods of Missouri when I was a child reveling in the beauty of the  wild. I liked to pinch off a bit and  chew it for it's tart taste. We called  it, also, Snake weed, I think because  Ivan's Uncle Ira who was a wildcrafter, said so, and that snakes  eat it if bitten by another snake.    This is folklore and I do not know if  true for sure. Now, here in East  Texas, it grows rampant all over my  garden! I quit fighting it... I try to  tolerate some of it as a part of  Mother Earth's ground cover. If I don't mulch, 'Mother' will ! Besides, I like to add a bit of it to a greens salad!

Y'all come back! Y'hear?

Last revised ..11/11/2000
http://www.oocities.org/tvksi/wild01.htm ©
1998 by Leona Halley Henderson, Tvksi