With its bright orange blossoms, the Butterfly Milkweed is one of the most striking prairie plants. 

Most butterflies are attracted to it.  Monarch butterflies like to lay their eggs on the plant which contains a substance poisonous to birds which then, in turn, will not eat the butterfly larvae.

The Butterfly Milkweed makes an attractive cut flower that lasts well.

Butterfly Milkweed grows in dry-to-mesic prairie and requires full sun.

The plant grows well from seed and will flower the second year.  Flowers increase in size and number as the plant matures.

Boiled roots of the Butterfly Milkweed plant were once used to treat pleurisy and other lung ailments.