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Asclepias cordifolia
Also called Purple Milkweed, Heart Leaf Milkweed
Heartleaf milkweed (Asclepias cordifolia) is a native perennial milkweed of western North America, grown mainly in native plant gardens and for pollinators and monarch butterflies. It needs well-drained soil and a sunny to lightly shaded spot, and it is best left undisturbed once established.
Asclepias cordifolia is a species of milkweed commonly called heart-leaf milkweed or purple milkweed (a common name shared with another milkweed, Asclepias purpurascens). It is native to the western United States (California, Nevada, Oregon), growing between 50 and 2,000 m (160 and 6,560 ft) elevation in the northern Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. Heart-leaf milkweed was valued by the Native American Miwok tribe for its stems, which they dried and processed into string and rope.
Monarch butterfly caterpillars are commonly found on all the milkweeds, including the heart-leaf milkweed. Even after the caterpillar has metamorphosed into a butterfly, the alkaloids they ingest from the plant are retained in the butterfly, making it unpalatable to predators.
The Miwok gathered heart-leaf milkweed in the summer and dried it, or collected it in the fall [autumn, most likely between September and December) after it was already dry. The dry stems were combed with a loop of willow to draw out the fiber just beneath the very thin outer skin. The fiber was wound into balls for storage and later processing. The making of cordage (rope and string) was done entirely by hand, with no tools. Asclepias was also used by the Native American Yokuts or Mariposa in northern and central California for string or rope.
Cartwheels · Whitestem milkweed · Spider milkweed · California milkweed · Bloodflower · Curtiss' milkweed · Woollypod milkweed · Desert milkweed · Poke milkweed · Mexican whorled milkweed · Florida milkweed · Swamp milkweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Asclepias cordifolia 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.
