THE "GHOST" UPDATED---2013

 ORIGINAL PLANT---2010

The white milkweed I call "The Ghost Plant" was discovered in southern Lebanon County on Pennsylvania Game Land # 145, in July of 2007. It produced one flower with one seed pod in 2007, one flower with no seed pod in 2008, one flower with four seed pods in 2009 and nine flowers with eleven seed pods in 2010. I was able to collect all the pods this plant  produced over those four growing seasons.  In 2011 the plant was destroyed after it formed buds---probably by a deer. In 2012 it came up and produced some blooms, but it was  mowed off  before the pods could be collected.  This year (2013)  there were 4 stalks and 5 flowers.  I visited the site with a PGC staff member and we flagged the plant, so hopefully it will survive until Fall when we can collect the seed pods.

While visiting the area we observed  perhaps a dozen Purple Milkweed plants blooming and much to my surprise  we found a second White Purple Milkweed plant blooming. It had two stalks and one flower and was at least a quarter mile from the original 2007 plant.

SECOND "GHOST" in SGL 145---2013

At about the same time I received an E-mail from Louise Schaeffer at Edge Of Woods Native Plant Nursery and it included three photos of a White Purple Milkweed growing and blooming in a bed of Purple Milkweeds which had the normal purple  color.

THE "GHOST" AT EDGE OF THE WOODS---2013

So now we have three plants  that are white.  I believe the seed for these plants came  from the original purple colored population in Game Land 145. WOW!!


So what is this plant? It does not appear to be  White Milkweed (Asclepias variegata).  The consensus among those who have seen photos of this plant or have seen it first hand, is that these specimens are a "white" variety of the Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens).

From 2007 until 2010 I collected, cleaned and either planted or distributed the seed to individuals and organizations interested in propagating interesting native plants.

In 2009 I found the plant when is was forming buds and kept tabs on it all summer as it went through its life cycle. It produced one flower and four fully mature seed pods which I collected on October 1, 2009.


The four seed pods produced by "The Ghost" in 2009 had a total of 465 seeds. I distributed the seed to a variety of organizations interested in native plant propagation, including The Brandywine Conservancy, The Mt Cuba Center, Bowmans Hill Wildflower Preserve and Fort Indiantown Gap. In the Spring of 2010, I planted some of the seed in pots and was able to keep about 30 of the plants alive all summer. I planted most of the plants at two locations on Pa State Gamelands. Both sites were cleared and specially prepared for the plantings. One was on SGL 145 near Mt Gretna, PA in Lebanon County and the other was near the Visitor Center at the Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in northern Lancaster County. Both locations are isolated from the Purple Milkweed populations, so we should get some idea of what these plants will look like in a couple of years.

The question was---"Will the offspring of "The Ghost" produce white flowers or not?

The only clue beside flower color  is the  midrib of the leaves.  All the leaves of the  "The Ghost" have WHITE (no Pink) midribs. The seedlings that I grew from this plant in 2010 had pink leaf midribs like the original Purple Milkweed. During the summer the deer ate these plants, so I was unable to see them actually bloom.

Until this Summer the only report I had received since 2010 was from Mark Gormel of the Brandywine Conservancy,  His report indicated that all the seed from "The Ghost" produced Purple Milkweeds with the usual purple color.

THE SAGA CONTINUES.  WHERE WILL "THE GHOST" APPEAR NEXT?

Stay tuned.