Botanical Name: Asclepias curassavica
Common Name: Butterfly weed
Type of Plant: dicot: annual
Character evergreen
 
Habit of Growth:
Overall Shape a very loosely-constructed plant, with slender stems rising and spreading to form a fairly rangy, open, loosely rounded shape; stems are conspicuously jointed at the nodes and have milky sap
Height 3' - 4'
Spread equal or more
Growth Rate rapid
 
Environment:
Exposure outdoors prefers warm sunny locations - avoid heavy shade
Soil tolerates most, including clay
Hardiness fairly hardy (zones 14-24): plant more shrubby in mild-climate areas
 
Morphology:
Leaves pinnate, opposite, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate; medium green, 3"-5" long; margins entire to slightly wavey
Flowers red with orange centers, small, borne on mostly terminal umbels; April - September
Fruit a tiny capsule
 
Propagation:
softwood cuttings
 
Usage:
valued as a vigorous, loose filler for subtropical and tropical gardens - produces its unusual and showy flowers for several months
 
Landscape Care:
Watering prefers regular; tolerates heavy irrigation - will survive short periods of drought
Fertilizing little is required
Pruning head back strongly and thin after blooming season is done
Pests/Diseases relatively free
 
Origin: tropical South America
Family: Asclepiadaceae

Notes:
 
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