Savanna milkweed

Podostigma pedicellatum (Walter) Vail

Herbs. Stems 1, erect, unbranched, 10–45 cm, puber­ulent with curved trichomes, not glaucous, rhizomes absent. Leaves opposite, sessile, with 1 stipular colleter on each side of leaf base; blade linear to narrowly elliptic or narrowly lanceolate, 1.5–6 × 0.1–0.8 cm, chartaceous, base cuneate, margins entire, apex acute, mucronate, venation obscure to eucamp­todromous, surfaces puberulent with curved trichomes or scabridulous to glabrate, margins ciliate, 2 laminar colleters. Inflorescences terminal and extra-axillary at upper nodes, pedunculate, 2–7-flowered; peduncle 0.15–1 cm, densely puberulent with curved trichomes, with 1 caducous bract at the base of each pedicel. Pedicels 5–13 mm, minutely puberulent with curved trichomes. Flowers erect; calyx lobes elliptic, 2–3 mm, apex acute, sparsely puberulent with curved trichomes to glabrate; corolla yellowish green to green, lobes erect, mostly concealing corona, narrowly elliptic, 7–10 mm, apex acute, glabrous; gynostegial column 4–6 mm; fused anthers green, broadly conic, 1–1.5 mm, wings right-triangular with decurrent base, closed, apical appendages ovate; corona segments yellowish green to green, sometimes dark green at apex, sessile, conduplicate, 1.5–2.5 mm, greatly exceeded by style apex, apex incurved, rounded, glabrous, internal appendage absent; style apex flat, green. Follicles erect on straight pedicels, fusiform, 8–14 × 0.3–0.5 cm, apex long-attenuate, smooth, densely puberulent with curved trichomes. Seeds ovate, 5–6 × 3–4 mm, margin winged, faces sparsely and minutely rugulose; coma 2–2.5 cm.

Flowering Mar–Nov(–Dec); fruiting May–Oct. Flats, streamsides, sandhills, sandy soils, pine flatwoods, savannas, pine-palmetto and oak-palmetto scrubs, often following fires; 0–100 m; Fla., Ga., N.C., S.C.

Asclepias pedicellata is found in drier habitats than some co-distributed milkweeds, such as A. connivens and A. viridula. It sometimes occurs in the same sites as A. cinerea, A. curtissii, and A. feayi. The erect petals and elongate gynostegial column are unique among Asclepias species in the flora area. The green flowers with hidden coronas and low stature of the plants can make them frustratingly cryptic in their grass-dominated habitats. Asclepias pedicellata is common only in Florida and North Carolina and is considered rare and of conservation concern in the intervening region in Georgia and South Carolina.