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Asclepias californica
Also called Round Hood Milkweed, Woolly Milkweed
California milkweed is a native perennial species of Asclepias from California and northern Baja California, grown for its pink and purple flowers and as a key monarch butterfly host plant. It needs full sun and well-drained soil, and it is most at home in the drier parts of its native range.
Asclepias californica is a species of milkweed known by the common name California milkweed. It grows throughout lower northern, central and southern California.
Asclepias californica is an important monarch butterfly caterpillar host plant, and chrysalis habitat plant. The cardiac glycosides caterpillars ingest from the plant are retained in the butterfly, making it unpalatable to predators. Asclepias californica attracts a wide variety of pollinators including bees and other butterfly species. Its flowers are rich in nectar, providing a critical food source for various insects as well as serving as shelter; contributing greatly to the overall pollinator health in the region.
This plant was eaten as candy by the Kawaiisu tribes of indigenous California; the milky sap within the leaves is flavorful and chewy when cooked, but can be poisonous when raw.
Cartwheels · Whitestem milkweed · Spider 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 californica 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.
