Asclepias subulata

Rush milkweed, Rush Milkweed

Family: Apocynaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Rush milkweed is a California native perennial found in southern desert regions including the Mojave and Colorado Desert in arroyos and washes at elevations below 700 meters. Flowering essentially year-round, this plant produces yellow-white to green-white flowers with distinctive elevated hoods that extend well above the corolla base. Growing with erect, generally glabrous stems that reach approximately 60 to 100 centimeters tall, it develops a distinctive sparse structure with narrow-linear leaves arranged oppositely along the stem. Its ephemeral leaves are extremely narrow, blade-like, and positioned directly on the stem without distinct petioles. The plant produces pendulous fruits that hang from slightly reflexed pedicels, with seeds approximately 6 millimeters long.

Habitat: Arroyos, washes

Bloom period: +- all year

Elevation: < 700 m

Bioregions: D

California counties: San Bernardino, San Diego, Riverside, Imperial

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