The greatest concentration of Mead's milkweed populations is on tallgrass prairies in eastern Kansas and western Missouri, where plants often grow in shallow, rocky, well-drained soil on slopes and ridges. These conditions spared many such sites from the plow, and landowners use them instead for hay production or for livestock grazing. Most Kansas populations of Mead's milkweed are on prairie hay meadows. Its perennial nature enables it to survive annual mowing. Unfortunately, most hay meadows are mowed before plants produce mature fruits that release their seeds.
Plants also appear to be relatively intolerant of grazing.
Work by the Kansas Natural Heritage Inventory points to the significance of Kansas prairies. Not only do they support many large, healthy populations of Mead's milkweed, but other rare or declining plants and animals also occur on some of them, including the western prairie fringed orchid, earleaf foxglove, prairie mole cricket, and Henslow's sparrow. The plight of these organisms epitomizes the difficulties faced by tallgrass prairie communities in general. Clearly, conservation efforts in Kansas will figure prominently in the long-term survival of many imperiled species. Factoids KBS has started two technology-transfer businesses.