Spreading Dogbane
Species profile by Wendy Aeschliman
Common Name(s): Dogbane, Spreading Dogbane, Flytrap Dogbane.
Scientific Name: Apocynum androsaemifolium
General Info: A perennial with stems erect, branched, and often reddish, can be hairy or non-hairy. Plants have a milky sap. 20 to 50 mm tall.
Native/ Non-native: Native.
Ecology: Found on open hillsides and ridges, well drained, dry sites, fields, roadsides, meadows, dry forest, locally common in low to subalpine elevations.
Range: May be found throughout Canada and the US.
Leaves: Leaves are opposite and oblong to elliptic. Short stalked, 3-8 cm long, spreading and drooping. Hairless and green above, paler and usually hairy below.
Flowers: Fragrant, small and pink, has bell-shaped corolla with spreading lobes which curl back. Darker pink lines (honey guides) lead insects into five peg-shaped nectaries which are visited by large butterflies and bees.
Fruits: Pods are very long (5 to 12 cm) and are paired, skinny, and cylindrical. There are numerous seeds with long tuft of cottony hairs.
Notes: The plant has had medicinal uses but is usually considered poisonous.
Resources/ Links:
Field Guide to Forest Plants of Northern Idaho (Patterson, Neiman, Tonn), 1985 USDA – Forest Service
Plants of Southern Interior British Colombia and the Inland Northwest (Parish, Coupe, Lloyd), 1996
Above:Dogbane turns yellow, sometimes reddish, in the fall! Note reddish stem.
Below: Dogbane leaves and small flowers in mid-summer.
Below: An individual dogbane flower.
Photos by Wendy Aeschliman