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 | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Gentianales |
| Family: | Apocynaceae |
| Genus: | Asclepias |
| Species: | A. californica
|
| Binomial name | |
| Asclepias californica | |
Description
editAsclepias californica is native to California and northern Baja California. It is a flowering perennial with thick, white, woolly stems which bend or run along the ground. The plentiful, hanging flowers are rounded structures with reflexed corollas and starlike arrays of bulbous anthers.
Uses
editThis 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.[citation needed]
Butterflies
editAsclepias 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.[3]
References
edit- ^ "Jepson eFlora: Asclepias californica". Jepson Herbaria of the University of California at Berkeley.
- ^ "Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin". www.wildflower.org. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
- ^ Graf, Michael (1999). Plants of the Tahoe Basin: Flowering Plants, Trees, and Ferns : a Photographic Guide. University of California Press. pp. 98. ISBN 978-0-520-21583-2.
External links
edit- Calflora Database: Asclepias californica (California milkweed)
- Jepson Manual Treatment: Asclepias californica
- University of Michigan, Dearborn: Ethnobotany: Asclepias californica
- Asclepias californica Photo gallery
