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Asclepias albicans
Also called White-Stem Milkweed, Wax milkweed, Giant cane milkweed, Candelilla, White Stemmed Milkweed
Whitestem milkweed is a spindly desert shrub, typically 1 to 3 m tall, with bare, waxy stems and leaves that drop quickly. Give it full sun, very sharp drainage and little water, as it is adapted to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts.
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, but known to approach 4 metres (13 feet). 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 which appears at the tips of the long branches and sprouting from the sides at nodes.
Cartwheels · Spider milkweed · California milkweed · Heartleaf milkweed · Bloodflower · Curtiss' milkweed · Woollypod milkweed · Desert milkweed · Poke milkweed · Mexican whorled milkweed · Florida milkweed · Swamp milkweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Asclepias albicans by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
