A few short days later, I stumbled across another perplexing milkweed mystery.
In June, a Florida gardener posted a mystery milkweed photo on my facebook page.
Over the 4th of July, I saw these same plants on a city boulevard in Chicago. After seeing them up close and personal, I was pretty sure they weren’t milkweed plants…but I left the windy city without making a positive ID.
Now, I’ve discovered a familiar ‘swampostor’ blending in to our swamp milkweed patch. But this time the faux milkweed made a fatal mistake. The flowing flowers clearly revealed its family secret…milkweed is not the father!
The leaves look like a cross between swamp milkweed and tropical milkweed, but with deeper veins. The stalks of the plants look more like tropical milkweed.
Dogbane is another plant that people often mistake for milkweed, but its leaves bear a closer resemblance to common milkweed.
Before I saw its flowers, I was wondering if this mystery plant could be the result of cross-pollination between swamp/tropical milkweed. After the blooms were revealed, I realized there was a milkweed impostor in our midst…
Milkweed Impostor 2
This July, a second milkweed impostor has been discovered in the swamp milkweed patch. It also has leaves resembling Asclepias incarnata, but its flowing purple panicles have revealed it as a milkweed brother from another mother:
This season I turned to a new ally in my question for plant identification:
Plant Identification Facebook Group
A helpful group member had my answer with a matter of minutes:
Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife)
After further research I discovered this plant is classified as a noxious weed in our state, so I dug it out and put it in the yard waste can.
Another milkweed mystery solved…
Click the following link to find 25+ REAL Milkweed Varieties for your butterfly garden.
Alvin Walling says
June 11 at 6:43 pmIs smartweed beneficial for polinators and worth having in the garden? Like a wildflower garden.
Tony Gomez says
June 12 at 1:59 pmHi Alvin, I never saw any pollinators on ours, but I pulled it pretty quickly. Here’s some info on one species:
Smartweed for Pollinators
Annie says
September 11 at 9:05 amRuth
There is a milkweed vine
Ruth Folger says
August 20 at 5:09 pmHello- I noticed a long crawling vine on an evergreen shrub in front of the house, and also noticed a couple of Monarch butterflies on the vine. I feel sure the vine is some type of invasive weed, however, it has little flowers which look a lot like Milkweed flowers. Now, I am seeing two beautiful Monarch caterpillars eating away on just the leaves of this vine. The vine is also full of tiny yellow aphids. Lots on both the stem and leaves of this vine. My husband and I ordered Ladybugs which should arrive soon, I was planning to release the Ladybugs on the vine to get rid of the aphids, is this OK?
Tony Gomez says
August 22 at 3:36 pmHi Ruth, ladybugs will eat small caterpillars too…if you release them on the honeyvine, I would remove eggs/caterpillars first
Lisa M. Reid says
August 6 at 7:21 pmWhat about Swamp Smartweed?
Linking you directly to a photo I found since it’s not my shot:
http://tinyurl.com/lwra3ya
Tony Gomez says
August 7 at 5:10 pmHi Lisa, thanks for posting this. From all the feedback I’ve been getting, I’m confident it’s some sort of Polygonum (smartweed). This seems to be a likely possibility. It’s also commonly found in Minnesota.