MILKWEED FAMILY 



113 



3 to 5 lines long; peduncle longer than the woolly pedicels; lower umbels with 6 to 

 10 flowers, the upper with 18 to 55; corolla brown-pink or reddish-purple; hoods 

 pinkish-white, aging yellowish, with a broad involute base, above this abruptly con- 

 tracted into a nearly flat lanceolate portion, the whole 2 to 21/0 times as long as the 

 stamen-column ; horns much exserted, incurved over the central disk; follicles ovate, 

 soft-spiny, at least toward the apex, 3 to 31/2 inches long, 1 to ly^ inches thick. 



Valley flats and along waterways, 10 to 4500 (or 6500) feet : North Coast Ranges 

 from Solano Co. to Siskiyou Co.; Sacramento Valley; Sierra Nevada from Fresno 

 Co. to Plumas Co.; east side Sierra Nevada from 

 Inyo Co., Cal. to Washoe Co., Nev. North to 

 Washington, east to Arkansas. May-Aug. 



Geog. note. — Asclepias speeiosa lives in a wide variety 

 of climates, since it inhabits all states west of the Missis- 

 sippi Eiver (U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 1245 :25). In Califor- 

 nia it grows under conditions of marked diversity from the 

 hot dry plains of the Sacramento Valley nearly at sea- 

 level to the high cool canons of the Sierra Nevada at Mono 

 Hot Springs on the South Fork of the San Joaquin Eiver 

 at 6500 feet. In western Solano County the plants are 

 more white-woolly than usual and the leaves very broad 

 (mostly 3 to 4% inches) and very obtuse at apex. Aside 

 from this Solano variation the species is fairly uniform in 

 aspect in California and remarkably constant in flower 

 character throughout its entire range. 



Locs. — North Coast Eanges: Cordelia, Jepson; La- 

 goon Valley, w. Solano Co., Jepson 9065 ; Allen Sprs., Lake 

 Co., D. Cleveland; Hy-am-pum, Trinity Co., Chesnut 4' 

 Drew; CeeilvUle, Siskiyou Co., Jepson; Sisson, Jepson 

 14,539; Yreka, Butler 1557. Sacramento Valley: Alamo 

 Creek, nw. Solano Co., Jepson 8197. Sierra Nevada: Kings 

 Canon, Jepson; Mono Hot Sprs., Fresno Co., A. L. Grant 

 1498 ; Chiquito Creek, South Fork San Joaquin Eiver, A. L. 

 Grant 1392; Yosemite, Jepson 8356; Heteh-Hetchy, Jep- 

 son; Standard City, Tuolumne Co., A. L. Grant; Bear Val- 

 ley, Nevada Co., Jepson 14,540 ; Donner Lake, Heller 7169 ; 

 Meadow Valley, Plumas Co., Fritz 4' Harris : Belden, Plu- 

 mas Co., Jepson. East side of Sierra Nevada: Independ- 

 ence, Alice Shine ; Bishop, ShocTcley 377. Nev. : Eeno, Jep- 

 son 14,538. 



Eefs. — Asclepias speciosa Torr., Ann. Lye. N. Y. 2:218 (1828), type coll. by James (Cana- 

 dian Eiver) ; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 383 (1901), ed. 2, 323 (1911), Man. 773 (1925). 



Asclepias GirroRDn Eastw., Proc. Cal. Acad. ser. 4, 20 :150 (1931), type loc. Tuolumne, Tuol- 

 umne Co., E. W. Gifford (July, 1913), (typ. vidi). Habit, tomentum, leaves and inflorescence 

 similar to A. eriocarpa ; ribbing of leaves and size of flowers similar to A. speciosa ; corolla-lobes 

 light buckskin color, tomentose below, microscopically puberulent above ; hoods very obliquely 

 truncate in such a manner as to make a short point dorsally, the back with a marked lanceolate 

 thickening ending in the dorsal point; horns wing-like, their slender points exserted, their bases 

 attached from the base of the hood to within % of the distance to the apex. — Known only from 

 the type locality. "It is unlike the other related species of California in that the corona surpasses 

 the anther column, and in the notched anther mngs" (ex char.). Its position seems intermediate 

 between A. eriocarpa and A. speciosa. More material is needed but search for this plant at the 

 type station has been unsuccessful. 



7. A. nyctaginifolia Gray. Mohave Milkweed. (Pig. 358.) Stems several 

 from the base, decumbent or ascending, 6 to 8 inches long; herbage green, finely 

 puberulent; leaf -blades ovate, acute, 2 to 4 inches long, on petioles % to 1 inch long; 

 umbels subsessile; corolla thinnish, greenish; hoods narrowly oblong, over twice as 

 long as the stamen-column, the sides closely appressed; horn wing-like, attached 

 towards the apex and produced into a subulate exserted point ; follicles narrowly 

 ovate, attenuate, 2 to 2i/2 inches long. 



Dry slopes, 4000 to 5000 feet : Providence and New York mountains in the east- 

 ern Mohave Desert. East to Arizona. May-June. 



Fig. 358. Asclepias nyctagini- 

 folia Gray, a, habit, X % ; 6, fl., 

 X IVa ; c, hood, X 2V2 ; d, long. sect, 

 of hood, X 2Y2. ; e, follicle, X Vs. 



