Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Asclepias exaltata; photograph (c) John Baur, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) John Baur, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-08

Asclepias exaltata L.

Poke milkweed; Tall milkweed

Apocynaceae · Ontario, Québec +27

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Asclepias exaltata, photograph (c) Jaime McGuigan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Asclepias exaltata, photograph (c) Jaime McGuigan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Asclepias exaltata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAsclepias exaltata, photograph (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Asclepias exaltata, photograph (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Asclepias exaltata, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 72 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-22.2°C
Record low -39.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,154mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
10–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Asclepias exaltata (poke milkweed or tall milkweed) is a species of flowering plant in the dogbane family, native to eastern North America.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Asclepias exaltata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Asclepias

Asclepias is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to humans and many other species, primarily due to the presence of cardenolides. However, as with many such plants, some species feed upon milkweed leaves or the nectar from their flowers. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Asclepias", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (832 mm of 1,161 mm) takes 8 months, March to September and November. Mean temperature moves 25.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to March and May.

Rain

1,161 mm in the median year at the habitat, 832 mm of it March to September and November. Wettest month June at 117 mm, driest month February at 74 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 844 mm to 1,566 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,154 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,161 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -22.2 °C, the absolute minimum -39.6 °C, 6,007 frost nights in 44 years, 136.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -7.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -13.3 °C to -3.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -22.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +3 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Asclepias exaltata through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -7.8 °C; 1,161 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-60°-40°-20°0°20°40°frost34.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-39.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 10–39RH 56–61%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1088 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C0 / -5–62 / -2–87 / 4–1214 / 12–1720 / 18–2225 / 23–2627 / 25–2826 / 24–2722 / 20–2415 / 13–189 / 5–132 / -3–7
Night °C-8 / -13–-3-7 / -11–-2-3 / -6–24 / 2–69 / 8–1115 / 13–1717 / 16–1917 / 15–1913 / 12–157 / 5–91 / -2–4-5 / -10–-1
Rain mm79 / 25–12774 / 25–13489 / 45–13999 / 72–131108 / 88–141117 / 92–147114 / 90–155109 / 86–133101 / 87–13489 / 70–12395 / 51–12487 / 33–132
DLI13 / 11–1619 / 17–2126 / 25–2832 / 31–3537 / 36–3839 / 38–4138 / 37–4134 / 33–3527 / 25–2919 / 17–2413 / 11–1710 / 8–14
RH %61 / 58–6459 / 56–6257 / 56–5956 / 54–5757 / 55–6058 / 56–6259 / 57–6360 / 58–6360 / 58–6259 / 57–6160 / 58–6261 / 58–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1088 grid cells holding the 1552 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 965:1842 (41.725, -87.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -39.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -22.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1088 distinct grid cells holding 1552 of the 1552 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 965:1842 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 41.50_-88.125, lapse-corrected +3 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 202 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOntario, Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker35.656, -82.862 · in the densest population, 1049 records (56% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1866 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1552 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 454 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 23 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 314 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1866 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Asclepias exaltata, photograph 1did not loadAsclepias exaltata, photograph 2did not loadAsclepias exaltata, photograph 3did not loadAsclepias exaltata, photograph 4did not loadAsclepias exaltata, photograph 5did not loadAsclepias exaltata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jaime McGuigan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Viola pubescens Viola pubescens Downy yellow violet Photo: CC BY-SA, Sherry SaenzCardamine pensylvanica Cardamine pensylvanica Pennsylvania Bittercress Photo: CC BY, JSReiffOsmorhiza claytonii Osmorhiza claytonii Hairy sweet cicely Photo: CC BY, Carter ErtelSymphyotrichum cordifolium Symphyotrichum cordifolium Beeweed Photo: CC BY, Alan RockefellerHepatica americana Hepatica americana Round-lobed hepatica Photo: CC BY, Jason ParrishGalium lanceolatum Galium lanceolatum Lanceleaf wild licorice Photo: CC BY, Tom Scavo

Other Asclepias 48 in the reference

Asclepias albicans Asclepias albicans White-Stem milkweed Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerAsclepias amplexicaulis Asclepias amplexicaulis Blunt-leaf milkweed Photo: CC0, author not statedAsclepias angustifolia Asclepias angustifolia Arizona milkweed Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te HsuAsclepias asperula Asclepias asperula Antelope horns Photo: CC BY, Parker James LloydAsclepias brachystephana Asclepias brachystephana Shortcrown milkweed Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffAsclepias californica Asclepias californica California milkweed Photo: CC BY, klickloAsclepias cordifolia Asclepias cordifolia Purple milkweed Photo: CC BY-SA, Brian FinzelAsclepias cryptoceras Asclepias cryptoceras Humboldt Mountains milkweed Photo: CC BY, Parker James LloydAsclepias curassavica Asclepias curassavica Bloodflower Photo: CC BY, Ricard Busquets ReverteAsclepias engelmanniana Asclepias engelmanniana Engelmann's milkweed Photo: CC BY, Rajan RaoAsclepias eriocarpa Asclepias eriocarpa Indian milkweed Photo: CC BY, klickloAsclepias erosa Asclepias erosa Desert milkweed Photo: CC BY, CK2AZ all 49 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Asclepias bicknellii; Asclepias phytolaccoides; Asclepias syriaca var. exaltata. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Asclepias nivea Sims is an older name of this species, not Asclepias nivea, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Ontario, Québec, Illinois +26
Wild records
1866 in range · 454 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 41.50_-88.125, lapse-corrected +3 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 66 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…