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Asclepias curassavica

Family: Asclepiadaceae

This milkweed is probably originally native to the neotropics, but now it is a pantropical weed. Given that it is always in flower, it is a sufficiently pretty weed to warrant cultivation in the UR greenhouses. The foliage supports growth of monarch butterfly caterpillars, just as the native milkweeds of North America do. Also, like many members of the family, this milkweed is susceptible to attack from a particularly bright, golden-colored aphid.

This close-up image illustrates several characteritic features of milkweed flowers. The sepals, visible only in the bud stage, are thoroughly obscured by the strongly reflexed orange-red petals. Projecting above the skirt-like corolla is the gynostegium, a complex fusion-product of androecium and gynoecium. The yellowish-orange gynostegium consists of 5 hood-like lobes, each bearing in inward-projecting horn. The faintly visible wishbone-like structure located between the hoods is a pollinium ready to be detached by a visiting insect.