Plains Milkweed

Asclepias pumila

Plant Type: Forb (Deciduous)
Landscape Layer: Groundcover
Sun: ☀️ Full Sun, ⛅ Part Sun
Moisture: 🏜️ Dry, 💧 Regular
Soil: Clay, Loam, Sand, Calcareous
Bloom: June, July, August, September

Pollinator Value

❄️ Winter Food Source: Genus-level record: Plain Chachalaca (Cracidae) feeds on Asclepias seeds. Follicles dehisce Aug-Oct and comose seeds may persist into early winter, providing limited forage for seed-eating birds.
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Ecology & Conservation

Proximity Score: 4
Native Status: ❌ Outaouais ❌ Ottawa ❌ QC ❌ ON
Closest Direction: W
CEC Eco-Regions: 9 – Great Plains, 9.3 – West Central Semi-Arid Prairies, 9.3.4 – Nebraska Sand Hills
Rarity Notes: Globally secure (G5). Not listed under SARA. Range restricted to the western Great Plains (CO, KS, MT, ND, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX, WY). Not native to Ontario or Quebec and has no conservation rank in either province.
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Migration: Disjunct
Ecological Context: A diminutive prairie milkweed of the western Great Plains, found on sandy, clayey, or rocky calcareous soils from Nebraska to Colorado and Montana. Typical habitats include sandhills, dunes, bluffs, and shortgrass prairies at 600-2300 m elevation. When not flowering, the plant is cryptic among Bouteloua grasses due to its needlelike foliage. Entirely absent from eastern North America; the nearest documented specimens are in the Dakotas and Nebraska, far west of the Outaouais.
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Permaculture & Companion Planting

Roles: pollinator attractor
S29 noted for attracting wildlife; pollinated by bees, insects, Lepidoptera

Medicinal Properties
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Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before using any plant for medicinal purposes. The information provided is compiled from secondary sources for educational purposes only.
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Category: Antidiarrheal, Pediatric Aid
S28 Lakota Drug categories
Notes: Lakota traditional medicine: infusion of leaves taken for diarrhea, including as a pediatric remedy for children with diarrhea (Rogers 1980, Rosebud area, South Dakota). PFAF also classifies the species as an astringent.
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Edibility & Foraging
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Never ingest a plant unless you have 100% certainty of its identity and have consulted multiple reputable sources. The information provided in the Localeaf Plant Database is compiled from secondary sources for educational and historical purposes only.
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❌ Not Edible

Foraging Notes

No species-specific edible uses documented. PFAF lists genus-level edible uses (flower buds, young shoots, seed pods) with a qualifier that these reports may or may not apply to this species. Moerman records only medicinal uses for A. pumila.

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Toxicity

⚠️ Moderate Toxicity

Not listed in Cornell poisonous plants database. However, PFAF warns that many Asclepias species contain toxic resinoids, alkaloids, and cardiac glycosides, and are avoided by grazing animals. This species is reported as poisonous to livestock. Caution warranted despite no species-specific toxicology data.

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Seed Source