White Milkweed
Asclepias variegata L.
Tight snowball clusters of pure white flowers, each ringed with a fine purple-red band at its base, glowing in the half-shade of southeastern oak and pine woods. The most striking white-flowered milkweed in North America.
Also called Redring Milkweed.
- Height
- 1.5 ft–3.5 ft
- Spread
- 1 ft–2 ft
- Flowers
- white
- Bloom
- May to July
- Light
- Part shade, Shade
- Soil moisture
- Dry, Average
- USDA zones
- 5–9
- Leaves
- Opposite, ovate
- Sap
- Milky latex
- Roots
- Deep taproot, resents transplanting
- Stratification
- 30 days cold-moist
- Range
- 25 states
When it flowers
White Milkweed blooms May to July, peaking in June.
How to identify it
- Dense, almost spherical clusters of white flowers, unlike the loose heads of poke milkweed.
- A distinct dark red or purple ring where the hoods meet the corolla.
- Broad dark green leaves in well-spaced opposite pairs.
- Woodland and woodland-edge habitat.
Unfamiliar words are in the glossary, and the identification key will narrow a plant down from what you can see.
Ecology and wildlife value
An important nectar source for woodland butterflies and a modest monarch host in southeastern forests.
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. The flowers are a heavy nectar source, so bumble bees and large wasps work them hard, and they are the ones that actually move the pollen. Everything that lives on milkweed.
Growing white milkweed
Beautiful and well behaved in a shaded native garden with good drainage. Slow from seed; scarce in the trade.
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 white milkweed grows
Recorded in 25 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia.
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 94717-1. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Accepted name, authorship and global distribution.
- GBIF 3170272. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Aggregated occurrence records.
- iNaturalist 127691. 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
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Milkweed USA. (2026). White Milkweed (Asclepias variegata). Retrieved DATE, from https://milkweedusa.com/species/white-milkweed/
"White Milkweed (Asclepias variegata)." Milkweed USA, 2026, https://milkweedusa.com/species/white-milkweed/. Accessed DATE.
Milkweed USA. "White Milkweed (Asclepias variegata)." Last modified 2026-08-01. Accessed DATE. https://milkweedusa.com/species/white-milkweed/.
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title = {White Milkweed (Asclepias variegata)},
author = {{Milkweed USA}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://milkweedusa.com/species/white-milkweed/},
note = {Accessed DATE}
}