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Calotropis procera
Also called Apple Of Sodom, French Cotton, Liberty Tree, Mudar, Prince Of Wales Crown, Seto / Gedla Akonda, Sodom's Milkweed
Calotropis procera is a fast-growing, drought-tolerant shrub or small tree from dry regions of Africa and Asia, with milky latex and fleshy, heavily scented flowers. It thrives in full sun and poor, sandy soil, and it is widely grown as a hardy ornamental or for its latex.
Calotropis procera is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae that is native to Northern and Tropical Africa, Western Asia, South Asia and Indochina (mainland Southeast Asia).
Common names for the plant include apple of Sodom, Sodom apple, roostertree, king's crown, small crownflower, giant milkweed, rubber bush, and rubber tree. The names "Apple of Sodom" and "Dead Sea Apple" stem from the ancient authors Josephus and Tacitus, who described the plant growing in the area of biblical Sodom. Although not native to the New World, the plant (and other related milkweed species) has been cultivated, and feeds monarch butterfly caterpillars, in places such as California, Hawaii and the island of Puerto Rico. In Arabic, it is known as al-ashkhar.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Calotropis procera 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.
