Asclepias albicans

Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Gentianales
Family: Apocynaceae
Genus: Asclepias
Species:
A. albicans
Binomial name
Asclepias albicans

Asclepias albicans is a species of milkweed known by the common names whitestem milkweed and wax milkweed. It is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of California, Arizona, and Baja California. This is a spindly erect shrub usually growing 1 to 3 meters (3+1⁄2 to 10 feet) tall,[1] but known to approach 4 meters. The sticklike branches are mostly naked, the younger ones coated in a waxy residue and a thin layer of woolly hairs. The leaves are ephemeral, growing in whorls of three on the lower branches and falling off after a short time. They are linear in shape and up to 3 centimeters (1+1⁄4 inches) long. The inflorescence is an umbel about 5 cm (2 in) wide[1] which appears at the tips of the long branches and sprouting from the sides at nodes. The inflorescence contains many purple-tinted greenish flowers, each about 1.5 cm (1⁄2 in) wide,[1] with a central array of bulbous hoods, and corollas reflexed back against the stalk. In its native range it is an evergreen perennial. The plant usually blooms all year long.[1] The fruit is a large, long, thick follicle which dangles from the branch nodes.

Asclepias albicans is a larval host for the monarch butterfly and the queen butterfly. [2] [3]

The similar A. subulata is found in similar regions.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Spellenberg, Richard (2001) [1979]. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers: Western Region (rev ed.). Knopf. pp. 347–348. ISBN 978-0-375-40233-3.
  2. ↑ Morris, Gail M.; Kline, Christopher; Morris, Scott M. (2015). "Status of Danaus plexippus in Arizona" (PDF). Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. Southwest Monarch Study. 69 (2): 91–107. doi:10.18473/lepi.69i2.a10. S2CID 87653856.
  3. ↑ "great milkweed grow out". Desert Botanical Garden. Retrieved Nov 20, 2022.


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