What is it? Asclepias tuberosa, commonly known as butterfly weed, is a perennial species of milkweed.
Native to where? It is native to eastern and southwestern North America.
What does it look like? It has long-lasting, bright orange flowers, and grows to 2 feet tall. The leaves are spirally arranged and alternating. The fruit pod is 3–6 in long, containing many long-haired seeds.
Bloom Time: It blooms from April to September.
Growth Habit: In an ideal location, a mature Butterfly Weed can become a very showy specimen, with multiple flowering stems spreading across a two-foot-high plant. Mature plants have a deep tap root that extends down a foot or more. They can be transplanted if dug carefully, during dormancy.
Growing Conditions: It prefers dry to medium soil of loam, sand, or gravel in full sun.
Hardiness Zone: Plants are hardy from USDA Hardiness Zones 3 to 9.
Environmental Benefits: Butterflies are attracted to the plant by its color and its copious production of nectar. It is a larval food plant of the queen and monarch butterflies.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepias_tuberosa
https://www.prairienursery.com/butterflyweed-asclepias-tuberosa.html
Image Sources:
By Photo by Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man) - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=912980
By Photo by and (c)2009 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man) - Self-photographed, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7080876