DOGBANE FAMILY APOCYNACEAE 
SPREADING DOGBANE 
Apocynum androsaemifolium L. 
This is a common perennial along roadsides and in fields 
and open woods from Georgia, Missouri and Arizona far north 
into Canada. The widely branching stem grows 1-4 feet high. 
The leaves are smooth 
above but pale and 
more or less hairy 
beneath. Often dur- 
ing July great num- 
bers of iridescent 
beetles are found 
feeding upon the foli- 
age of the Dogbane. 
The flowers bloom 
from June to early 
August and though 
small are fragrant and 
pretty. The green 
calyx is $-parted. 
The 5 lobes of the 
corolla are turned 
back, and the tube, 
delicate pink with 
darker veins, is longer 
than the calyx. To 
its base are attached 
the 5 yellowish sta- 
mens, whose anthers 
are crowded around the stigma and slightly attached to it. 
There are 2 ovaries, whose sessile stigmas are united. The fruit 
is a pair of follicles containing a large number of small seeds. 
Each seed is tufted with long white hairs which well adapt it 
for wind dissemination. 
The Intermediate Dogbane, Apocynum medium Greene, is a 
more or less erect, branching herb 2-4 feet high. The oblong or 
elliptic leaves are finely hairy beneath and have a fine, sharp and 
abrupt tip. The compactly flowered cymes are terminal on long 
peduncles. The white or pink corollas are urn shaped, with the 5 
lobes acute and spreading. 
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