This is one of the most beautiful milkweeds. Not the common dusty-dull rose-flowered farm weed, but a really beautiful red-flowered form with much more refined foliage and habits. And like the orange-flowered Butterfly Weed, this one is a monarch magnet, great for butterfly gardens.

The milkweed family of North American plants is named Asclepias after Asclepias, the famous Greek God of Medicine, since the plants have long been used in herbal medicine.

This Asclepias, with its glowing red flowerheads, is best placed in a wet spot, or at least one that is wet part of the year, since that is its native habitat.