White Flowered Asclepias speciosa

Oregon and Washington's native milkweed, Asclepias speciosa, is also called Showy Milkweed, likely because of the stately nature of the milkweed with its beautiful thick silvery leaves and complementing pinkish blush coloration. But what would you call a snowy colored variant? It certainly doesn't get any more showy than that! Somewhere in Washington there is a white milkweed growing in the wild, and it is a showstopper indeed. A beautiful genetic variant no doubt. We are fortunate to have some young plants of this parent milkweed growing in our gardens. Here are some visual differences between the two, enjoy !

These plants lack the pinkish blush on their leaf veins, and is instead a soft yellow.

Flower 'ball' is larger and looser - fewer flowers, but flower umbels are larger than the Showy counterpart.

A standard example of the usual Showy Milkweed.