Asclepias speciosa

Showy milkweed

Family: Apocynaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Showy milkweed is a California native perennial found in various bioregions across California, inhabiting fields, roadsides, and diverse habitats at elevations up to 1,900 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces rose-purple flowers with distinctive pink aging to yellow hood-like structures that dramatically extend above the corolla base. Growing with ascending to erect hairy stems, it develops opposite leaves that are elliptic to ovate and often clasp the stem. Its leaves have short petioles and range from 5 to 15 centimeters long, with a base that occasionally appears heart-shaped. The plant produces erect fruits containing seeds 6 to 9 millimeters long, making it a critical habitat plant for monarch butterflies.

Habitat: Many habitats including fields, roadsides

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: < 1900 m

Bioregions: CA (exc possibly CW, SW, DSon, elsewhere)

California counties: Inyo, Humboldt, Sacramento, Amador, Plumas, Lake, Trinity, Fresno, Siskiyou, Calaveras, Modoc, Nevada, Yolo, Tuolumne, Tulare, Mono, Mariposa, Mendocino, Los Angeles, Shasta, Lassen, Butte, San Joaquin, El Dorado, Marin, Placer, Del Norte, Sierra, Yuba, Colusa, Tehama, Solano, Glenn, Alpine, Napa, Madera, Sutter

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.