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Gomphocarpus fruticosus
Also called Milkweed, Narrow Leaf Cotton Bush, African Milkweed, Wild Cotton
A fast-growing shrubby milkweed native to southern and eastern Africa, widely grown as a host plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars. Grow it in full sun in warm, frost-free conditions, and keep it contained because it can spread and is declared a pest in parts of Australia.
Gomphocarpus fruticosus (swan plant; narrow-leaved cotton bush) is a species of plant native to South Africa. It is also common in Australia and New Zealand where it is a host of the monarch butterfly. The plant's tissues contain sufficient cardenolides that consumption of significant quantities of the plant's leaves, stems, or fruit may lead to death in livestock and humans.
The plant, also referred to as Narrow leaf cotton bush, has officially been declared a pest in Western Australia.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Gomphocarpus fruticosus 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.
