MEXICAN WHORLED MILKWEED 



Ascle'pias mexica'na 



W30 

 (2 leaves) 



Flowers small, numerous, greenish 

 white or purplish, soft-short-hairy, in 

 long-stalked, umbrella-shaped clusters 

 at stem ends or in leaf axils 



Stamens 5, their stalks (filaments) 

 united into a tube 



Inner flower crown (corona) stalked, 

 with 5 erect hoods; hoods shorter than 

 the pollen sacs (anthers), each hood 

 with horn projecting beyond it on 

 inside 



United petals (corolla) 5-lobed; lobes 

 turned down after flower opens 



Outer flower parts (sepals) 5, small, 

 turned down, persistent 



Pollen masses (pollinia) waxy, paired, 

 suspended on stalks (translators) from 

 a sticky body (corpusculum) 



Leaves linear or narrowly lance- 

 shaped, 2 to 6 in. long and up to K in. 

 wide, hairless, in whorls of 3 to 6 at 

 stem joints or uppermost and lower 

 leaves opposite 



Stems woody at the base, solitary or 

 several, erect, 1 to about 6 ft. high, 

 short-soft-hairy above 



Seed pods (follicles) up to about 4 

 in. long, narrow (about y t in. thick), 

 somewhat spindle-shaped, erect, thin- 

 walled, splitting down the side, many- 

 seeded 



Seeds reddish brown, egg-shaped, flat- 

 tened, with tuft of silky, white hairs 

 about iy t in. long at tip 



Roots deep, woody, extensive, with 

 deep, horizontal, rootstocklike branches 

 which give rise to new stems 



