Asclepias curassavica
Asclepias eastwoodiana
blood flower, bloodflower milkweed, hierba de la cucaracha, tropical milkweed, wild ipecacuanha
Eastwood's milkweed
1–several, erect, sparsely to moderately branched, 30–150 cm, minutely pilosulous in a line to glabrate, not glaucous, rhizomes absent.
1–6, ascending to decumbent, unbranched or branched near base, 6–30 cm, puberulent with curved trichomes, not glaucous, rhizomatous.
persistent or gradually caducous from the base, opposite, petiolate, with 1 or 2 stipular colleters on each side of petiole on a ciliate interpetiolar ridge;
petiole 4–25 mm, puberulent with curved trichomes in a line to glabrate;
blade elliptic or oval to linear, 4–18 × 0.3–4.5 cm, membranous, base cuneate, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate to attenuate, venation eucamptodromous to faintly brochidodromous, surfaces sparsely puberulent with curved trichomes on veins abaxially, sparsely puberulent with curved trichomes on veins to glabrate adaxially, margins ciliate, laminar colleters absent.
proximally opposite, distally alternate, petiolate, with 0 or 1 stipular colleter on either side of petiole;
petiole 2–10 mm, puberulent with curved trichomes;
blade narrowly lanceolate to ovate, 2–4.5 × 0.6–3 cm, chartaceous, base cuneate to obtuse, margins entire, apex acute, mucronate, venation eucamptodromous, surfaces strigulose or pilosulous on midvein to glabrate, margins densely ciliate, laminar colleters absent.
extra-axillary, pedunculate, 5–22-flowered;
peduncle 0.5–8 cm, puberulent with curved trichomes in a line, with 1 caducous bract at the base of each pedicel.
terminal and extra-axillary at upper nodes, sessile or pedunculate, 2–25-flowered;
peduncle 0–4 cm, puberulent with curved trichomes to glabrate, bracts few.
7–20 mm, puberulent with curved trichomes.
10–28 mm, pilosulous to puberulent with curved trichomes.
erect;
calyx lobes linear-lanceolate, 3–4 mm, apex acute, puberulent with curved trichomes;
corolla red, sometimes yellow in throat (to wholly orange or yellow in cultivars), lobes reflexed with spreading tips, elliptic to oval, 6–9 mm, apex acute, glabrous abaxially, minutely papillose at base adaxially;
gynostegial column 2–2.5 mm;
fused anthers yellowish green to tan, cylindric, 1.5–2 mm, wings narrowly right-triangular, closed, apical appendages deltoid;
corona segments yellow to orange, stipitate, tubular, dorsally somewhat flattened, 3.5–4 mm, exceeding style apex, apex obtuse to acute, glabrous, internal appendage falcate, exserted, arching over style apex, glabrous;
style apex shallowly depressed, yellow.
erect;
calyx lobes elliptic to lanceolate, 2–2.5 mm, apex acute, puberulent with curved trichomes to pilosulous;
corolla red-violet, faintly striate, lobes reflexed with spreading tips, oval, 4–5 mm, apex acute, glabrous;
gynostegial column 0.2–0.5 mm;
fused anthers brown, cylindric, 1.5–2 mm, wings right-triangular, apical appendages ovate;
corona segments red-violet dorsally, white proximally, sessile, cupulate, 1.5–2 mm, slightly exceeded by style apex, apex truncate with a proximal tooth on each side, glabrous, internal appendage conical, barely exserted from cavity, glabrous;
style apex shallowly depressed, pink to red-violet.
ovate, 6–7 × 4–5 mm, margin winged, faces minutely rugulose to smooth;
coma 2.5–3 cm.
not seen.
erect on straight pedicels, fusiform, 6–10 × 0.5–1.2 cm, apex acuminate to attenuate, smooth, glabrous.
spreading to pendulous on spreading pedicels, lance-ovoid, 3.5–6 × 0.5–1 cm, apex acuminate, smooth, faintly striate, strigose.
= 22.
Asclepias curassavica
Asclepias eastwoodiana
Asclepias curassavica is the only non-native Asclepias species naturalized in the flora area. It is very commonly cultivated, originally for its strikingly colored flowers and their attraction of Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera. Recently, they have been valued also as a host plant for monarch butterflies. Cultivars with pure orange or pure yellow flowers are readily available. The species develops rapidly from seed and can be grown as an annual (in the horticultural sense) anywhere in the region. Though often described as an annual, like all species of Asclepias, it has a perennial habit. It may persist through mild winters at least as far north as Oklahoma but has only become established in frost-free areas of the southern United States.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Asclepias eastwoodiana and the next three species (A. ruthiae, A. sanjuanensis, A. uncialis) form a complex of largely allopatric entities that have sometimes been united in a single species, for which the name A. uncialis holds priority (for example, E. Sundell 1994). However, each entity shows genetic, chemical, and subtle morphological distinctions, supporting recognition at the specific rank (M. B. Sady and J. N. Seibert 1991; J. P. Riser et al. 2019). Asclepias eastwoodiana is distinguished from the others by the differences in leaf shape, vestiture, and corona morphology indicated in the key. With A. ruthiae it shares a spreading to pendulous fruit that differs from the typically erect fruits of A. sanjuanensis and A. uncialis. Asclepias eastwoodiana is endemic to valleys in central Nevada (Esmeralda, Lander, Lincoln, Mineral, and Nye counties), where it is considered to be a species of conservation concern, potentially threatened by livestock trampling and mining development.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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