SWAMP MILKWEED 



Asclepias incarnata L. 



Summer WIumo the grround is saturated with water along the stream 

 Swamps iiud in the wet ])asture. or in the roadside ditch which never 

 dries, there stand tlie tall stalks of swamp milkweed. In July 

 and August tliev are topped with spreading c lusters of rose-pink and pale 

 ])ink ilowers with a rich, swtn't, vanilla-like fi-agrance to which are at- 

 tracted iniHuuerahle hees. ilies, and hutterllies. As in the manner of the 

 connnon milkweed and others of ilu' gemis. Hying insects ]iollinate the 

 milkweed ilowui-s, hut often are caught hy their feet as they attempt 

 to dejjart. 



Swamp milkweed has smaller Ilowers than many of the clan, but 

 l»rodu(cs them ahuiulautly. Their color and form are among the most 

 ex(juisitc of summer Ilowers. their fragrance among the most delectiihle. 



The leaves are glossy, veiny, alternate on the tall stem which often 

 grows to six feet tall in a favorable locality. This is the sort of place 

 where woodcocks ]ioke aiouud in s])ring nnul. where redwings nest in 

 nearby willows and lattails, where frogs sing ow balmy evenings, where 

 the low trilling of toads fills the warm sunnner night. Here the bull snake 

 and the water snake come to catcii frogs on a sunnner day. Here on the 

 nnul ilats when high sunnner dries much of the water level, the kill- 

 deers and sandpipers come ))eei)ing and crying in an endless search for 

 insects. This is the haunt of swamp milkweed in Illinois. It is as much 

 a ])art of it a.>^ all the other wild things which live or grow or feed or have 

 their being in the wet jibices. 



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