Stats

Lifespan: Perennial
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: North America
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Toxins
Status: Uncommon

About

Narrowleaf milkweed is a slender western North American wildflower with whorls of narrow leaves and tight clusters of pinkish-lavender blooms. It produces toxic cardenolide compounds that monarch butterfly caterpillars sequester in their bodies, making themselves unpalatable to predators — one of the most famous chemical defenses in the insect world.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Gentianales
Family: Apocynaceae
Genus: Asclepias
Species: Asclepias fascicularis