Desert Milkweed
Asclepias subulata
Sponsored Links:
SUCCULENT: Several to many pencil-thick or slightly thicker smooth green
stems rise to about a ½ meter
to 1 meter tall.
LEAVES: A few linear leaves may be seen at growing tip of stems, but are
soon deciduous leaving the plant essentially leafless.
RANGE: Occasional at various locations throughout the lower Sonoran
Desert. Frequent in xeriscape plantings in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona.
STEMS: When injured the stems exude copious milky latex.
FRUIT: Pods with wrinkled-looking valves. The seeds are comose (set with long silky hairs) for wind
dispersal. Dried pod valves hang onto the stems for many months after the
seeds have dispersed.
FLOWERS: Five-pointed, star-shaped, white and borne in umbels of 8 to 15
flowers at the terminus of the stems.
UNARMED.
Two kinds of insects will very often be found on this plant and often make cultivation difficult. Reddish bugs that often appear in dense groups are Milkweed Bugs. Then there are bright yellow aphids, Oleander Aphids that often encrust new growth and emerging flower buds.
Near San Luis R. C., Sonora, Mexico. 25 Jan. 2015.