Asclepias speciosa
showy milkweed
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Asclepias speciosa or showy milkweed. Very ornamental with rosy pink flowers in the spring through early summer. Generally have to wait until second year for flowers. Native to California from Santa Clara County on up and east into the midwest. Besides being the food plant for monarch and queen butterfly caterpillars they are excellent nectar flowers for other butterflies, bees, and sometimes hummingbirds too. Full sun to part shade. Native American uses – basketry.
