Haddam Meadows Asclepii

Anthony Zemba AZemba at MaguireGroup.com
Thu Sep 20 11:38:34 EDT 2007


Hi Diane: 
Without spending too much time on the subject I can tell you that I believe there to be 10 species of Milkweed known from Connecticut growing without cultivation based on the list provided by Dowhan (1979). Three species appear on Connecticut's list of Endangered, Threatened, and Special Concern species. THey are: A. purpurascens (purple m.) - state special concern, A. variegata (White m.) - state special concern; and A. viridiflora (Green m.) state endangered. A. variegata is believed to be extirpated from the state.  A viridiflora is extremely hard to find, being a species of "woods, prairies, and barrens, especially in sandy soil" (Gleason and Cronquist, 1991) it was no doubt decimated due to development of our sand barrens across the state, and possible from the suppression of fire in the remaining remnants.  The listed species cannot be collected or possessed without a CTDEP permit. Excluding A. variegata and A. viridiflora, and assuming you can recognize the ones you listed below, that leaves 6 known to grow in CT w/o cultivation: A. purpurescens (mentioned above), A. amplexicaulis, A. exaltata, A. quadrifolia, and A. verticillata. Leaf characteristics are as follows:

A. purpurescens - "...leaves elliptic to ovate-oblong, 10-15 cm, hairy beneath, broadly cuneate to a petiole 8-25 mm..." 
A. amplexicaulis - "...leaves oval or broadly oblong, 7-15 cm, obtuse or rounded at the summit, broadly rounded or commonly cordate at the sessile or subsessile base..." [which generally means the leaves appear to be clasping the stem]
A. exaltata - "...leaves thin, broadly elliptic, 1-2 dm, acuminate at both ends, glabrous or puberulent beneath; petioles 1-2 cm..."
A. quadrifolia - "...leaves thin, lanceolate or lance-ovate, the larger 6-12 cm, acuminate, cuneate to a conspicuous petiole; peduncles 1-4 cm..." this species also often has three leaf bearing nodes, the upper and lower each typically bear a pair of small leaves, while the middle bears a whorl of four larger ones.
A. verticillata - "...leaves very numerous in whorls of 3-6, narrowly linear, 2-5 cm x 1-2 mm, revolute... (Gleason and Cronquist, 1991).

so basically using the process of elimination (e.g, if the leaves aren't clasping the stem, you can rule out amplexicaulis, if you don't see the nodal differences in quadrifolia, it probably ins't four-leaved milkweed, etc.) you should be able to narrow it down to a couple of species quiclky and then by examining other characteristics such as the stem and seed pods, you may be able to ID your Asclepias without flowers. Good luck.
-Anthony

Cited:
Dowhan, Joseph J.  1979. Preliminary Checklist of the Vascular Flora of Connecticut (Growing without cultivation). State Geologic and Natural History Survey of Connecticut. 

Gleason, Henry A., and Arthur Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Edition. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York. 910 pp.

Anthony J. Zemba
Senior Ecologist
Planning and Environmental Compliance
Maguire Group Inc.
One Court Street
New Britain, CT 06051
p: (860) 224-9141 ext. 236
f: (860) 224-9147
Azemba at MaguireGroup.com 



>>> <ButterflyPR at comcast.net> 9/19/2007 9:41 PM >>>
Stopped by Haddam Meadows this afternoon to get milkweed for my remaining caterpillars.  Yes, I still have early instar Monarch caterpillars!  I was keeping milkweed in the refrigerator for what I thought were my last caterpillars, when I discovered eggs...and they hatched after being refrigerated for several days!

Which leads me to a milkweed question.  I recognize common milkweed (a.syriaca), butterflyweed (a. tuberosa), and swamp milkweed (a.incarnata), but I'm not sure about some of the milkweed I've been getting lately.  The leaves are definitely thinner and pointier than the common milkweed, but the overall plant seems thinner than most of the swamp milkweed I've seen.  I haven't seen any of it flowering or making pods, so I can't ID it that way.  Any thoughts?

Anyway, I did find one Monarch egg, but I decided to leave it there!  I saw four adult Monarchs, and finally tagged one of them when I remembered I had the tags in the van!  Also saw a couple of little low-flying orange-brown skippers with definite black on the upper side of their wings.  Assuming they were Least.  And one worn Silver-Spotted Skipper, and two Pearl Crescents.  And a few Cabbage Whites.  All of these were gathered in a little triangle of flowers at the end of the loop, towards the dam.  I did see one other brown butterfly, but it disappeared into the far field to quickly to identify--it was definitely lighter colored than a Red Admiral and seemed to be flying like a Brown...

Diane



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