Asclepias subulata

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. subulata
Binomial name
Asclepias subulata

Asclepias subulata is a species of milkweed known commonly as the rush milkweed, desert milkweed[1] or ajamete. This is an erect perennial herb which loses its leaves early in the season and stands as a cluster of naked stalks. Atop the stems are inflorescences of distinctive flowers. Each cream-white flower has a reflexed corolla that reveals the inner parts, a network of five shiny columns, each topped with a tiny hook. The fruit is a pouchlike follicle that contains many flat, oval seeds with long, silky hairlike plumes. This milkweed is native to the desert southwest of the United States and northern Mexico.

Researchers in Bard, California tested the plant as a potential source of natural rubber in 1935.[2]

Asclepias subulata is a larval host for the monarch butterfly. [3]

References

  1. ↑ Kirti Mathura. "The Master Gardner Journal". Cooperative Extension Maricopa County. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  2. ↑ Beckett, R. E.; Stitt, R.S. (May 1935). "The Desert Milkweed (Asclepias subulata) as a possible source of natural rubber". United States Department of Agriculture. Technical Bulletin no. 472.
  3. ↑ 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.


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