Species
+

Asclepias perennis Walter

Aquatic milkweed, Shore Milkweed, Smoothseed Milkweed, Swamp-forest Milkweed

Climate known 98 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Asclepias perennis, also known as aquatic milkweed or white swamp milkweed, is a North American species of milkweed that is found throughout the Coastal Plain from eastern Texas to southern South Carolina, northward along the Mississippi River, and into the Ohio Valley of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. There seems to be a few disjunct populations in Arkansas, Texas, and Indiana.

Text from Wikipedia, “Asclepias perennis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Asclepias

Asclepias is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to humans and many other species, primarily due to the presence of cardenolides. However, as with many such plants, some species feed upon milkweed leaves or the nectar from their flowers. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Asclepias”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
Walter
Native to
Illinois, Missouri, Indiana +10
Wild records
1686 in range· 500 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Jul, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1349mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 144 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March and May to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1349 mm a year, wettest June at 144 mm, driest April at 88 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Asclepias debilis Michx.; Asclepias lancifolia Raf.; Asclepias laxiflora Perr.; Asclepias laxiflora Perr. ex Colla; Asclepias matelea Nutt. and 8 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March and May to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (961 mm of 1349 mm) takes 8 months, March and May to November. Mean temperature moves 16.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to May and September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1349 mm a year, wettest June at 144 mm, driest April at 88 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1349 mm a year at the habitat, 961 mm of it March and May to November. Wettest month June at 144 mm, driest April at 88 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1230 mm to 1595 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -3.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.6 °C, the absolute minimum -12.0 °C, about 16 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -0.8 °C to 11.1 °C), warmest day 32.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 16 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Jul; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1349 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 910 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -12.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-12.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 17–40RH 57–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 910 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 8–2018 / 11–2121 / 16–2425 / 21–2629 / 26–3031 / 29–3232 / 31–3332 / 30–3430 / 28–3126 / 22–2721 / 15–2417 / 9–21
Night °C7 / -1–119 / 1–1212 / 6–1415 / 11–1719 / 16–2123 / 21–2424 / 23–2524 / 22–2521 / 18–2317 / 12–2012 / 7–168 / 1–13
Rain mm101 / 67–13495 / 72–138111 / 85–13888 / 66–127119 / 66–141144 / 98–200126 / 97–201117 / 74–213121 / 83–180108 / 79–141115 / 56–131104 / 66–149
DLI18 / 16–2223 / 21–2630 / 28–3337 / 35–4039 / 38–4240 / 38–4240 / 38–4137 / 34–3832 / 30–3326 / 24–2820 / 17–2317 / 13–20
RH %58 / 57–6058 / 57–6057 / 56–6057 / 55–6059 / 57–6261 / 58–6362 / 58–6461 / 57–6560 / 56–6358 / 55–6058 / 57–5959 / 58–60

Each figure is the median across the 910 grid cells holding the 1481 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1193:1703 (30.325, -94.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -12.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 910 distinct grid cells holding the 1481 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1193:1703 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.50_-95.000, lapse-corrected -43 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 19 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeIllinois, Missouri, Indiana, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee
Kew's description“perennial or subshrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker29.7, -95.452 · in the densest population, 557 records (33% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1686 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 500 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 481 km away. 13 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 205 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1686 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Asclepias perennisAsclepias perennisAsclepias perennisAsclepias perennisAsclepias perennisAsclepias perennisAsclepias perennisAsclepias perennis

Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) Jody Shugart, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) evangrimes, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jeff Wilson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Asclepias perennis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

It’s the first bites that count: Survival of first‐instar monarchs on milkweeds
Myron P. Zalucki, Stephen B. Malcolm, Timothy D. Paine, C. C. Hanlon (2001) · Austral Ecology
A general framework for propagule dispersal in mangroves
Tom Van der Stocken, Alison K. S. Wee, Dennis J. R. De Ryck, Bram Vanschoenwinkel (2019) · Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Phylogenetic ecology of leaf surface traits in the milkweeds (Asclepias spp.): chemistry, ecophysiology, and insect behavior
Anurag A. Agrawal, Mark Fishbein, Reinhard Jetter, Juha‐Pekka Salminen (2009) · New Phytologist
The National Wetland Plant List
Robert W. Lichvar (2012)
Fitness costs of animal medication: antiparasitic plant chemicals reduce fitness of monarch butterfly hosts
Leiling Tao, Kevin M. Hoang, Mark D. Hunter, Jacobus C. de Roode (2016) · Journal of Animal Ecology
Seed Buoyancy and Viability of the Wetland Milkweed Asclepias perennis and an Upland Milkweed, Asclepias exaltata
Adrienne L. Edwards, Robert Wyatt, Rebecca R. Sharitz (1994) · Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club
Plant chemical diversity enhances defense against herbivory
Xosé López‐Goldar, Xuening Zhang, Amy P. Hastings, Christophe Duplais (2024) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Savannah River Plant site
Du Pont de Nemours (E.I.) and Co., Aiken, S.C. (United States). Atomic Energy Div., T Langley, W Marter (1973)
Mixed-Species Gardens Increase Monarch Oviposition without Increasing Top-Down Predation
Rebecca Nestle, Jaret C. Daniels, Adam G. Dale (2020) · Insects

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Asclepias 10 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 54 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.