Texas Milkweed
Asclepias texana A. Heller
A refined Edwards Plateau endemic with thin dark green leaves and clean white flower clusters, growing in limestone canyons and creek beds through the Texas Hill Country.
- Height
- 1 ft–3 ft
- Spread
- 1 ft–2 ft
- Flowers
- white
- Bloom
- May to September
- Light
- Part shade, Full sun
- Soil moisture
- Dry, Average
- USDA zones
- 7–9
- Leaves
- Opposite, ovate
- Sap
- Milky latex
- Roots
- Deep taproot, resents transplanting
- Stratification
- 30 days cold-moist
- Range
- 2 states
When it flowers
Texas Milkweed blooms May to September, peaking in June and July.
How to identify it
- Pure white flowers in neat rounded clusters.
- Thin, dark green, pointed leaves on a slender branching stem.
- Limestone canyons, seeps and rocky stream banks in central Texas.
Unfamiliar words are in the glossary, and the identification key will narrow a plant down from what you can see.
Ecology and wildlife value
A localized but valuable summer host and nectar plant in Hill Country canyon habitats.
Monarchs are not the only thing that will find it. Expect large milkweed bugs on ripening pods, oleander aphids on the stems, red milkweed beetles at the flowers and, in late summer, milkweed tussock moths. Everything that lives on milkweed.
Growing texas milkweed
A good, well-mannered garden plant for central Texas, taking part shade and limestone soil.
Seed needs about 30 days of cold-moist stratification. Deep taproot, resents transplanting. See how to plant milkweed seed for the full method.
Cautions
Standard milkweed cautions. More on milkweed toxicity.
Where texas milkweed grows
Recorded in 2 states: New Mexico, Texas.
County records from USDA PLANTS, public domain. Cross-check against BONAP and your regional flora before making management decisions.
References and further reading
Names, ranges and conservation status here are drawn from the databases below. Where those disagree with a regional flora, trust the flora.
- Plants of the World Online 21305-2. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Accepted name, authorship and global distribution.
- GBIF 3170347. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Aggregated occurrence records.
- iNaturalist 158762. Community observations, photographs and phenology.
- Wikipedia. General-audience article on this species.
- BONAP county distribution map. Biota of North America Program. County-level range map.
- NatureServe Explorer. Conservation status ranks at global and state level.
- World Flora Online. Nomenclature and synonymy.
- Woodson, R. E. (1954). The North American species of Asclepias L.. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 41(1): 1–211. The monograph the modern taxonomy of the genus still rests on. View
- Flora of North America Editorial Committee (eds.) (2026). Flora of North America North of Mexico. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford. Accepted names, keys and descriptions for the North American flora. View
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2026). Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Nomenclature and global distribution, keyed to IPNI name identifiers. View
- Kartesz, J. T. (Biota of North America Program) (2026). North American Plant Atlas. BONAP, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. County-level distribution maps, the basis for the ranges generalized here. View
- USDA, NRCS (2026). The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, North Carolina. State-level distribution, wetland status and nomenclature. View
- Agrawal, A. A. (2017). Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution. Princeton University Press. The standard general account of the milkweed and monarch relationship. View
Cite this page
This page is licensed CC BY 4.0. Quote it, adapt it and reuse it, including commercially, as long as you credit Milkweed USA and link back.
Milkweed USA. (2026). Texas Milkweed (Asclepias texana). Retrieved DATE, from https://milkweedusa.com/species/texas-milkweed/
"Texas Milkweed (Asclepias texana)." Milkweed USA, 2026, https://milkweedusa.com/species/texas-milkweed/. Accessed DATE.
Milkweed USA. "Texas Milkweed (Asclepias texana)." Last modified 2026-08-01. Accessed DATE. https://milkweedusa.com/species/texas-milkweed/.
@misc{milkweedusa_speciestexasmilkweed,
title = {Texas Milkweed (Asclepias texana)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/species/texas-milkweed/},
note = {Accessed DATE}
}