Asclepias curassavica, Tropical Milkweed. 3-4" pot

Asclepias curassavica, Tropical Milkweed

FS, Annual, blooms July to fbe st, 3.5’ x 1.5’

This plant is an annual, grown from seed and not a Michigan native. Because it comes from the south, it will succumb to the first hard frost in October. Nevertheless, this is an important milkweed to grow or keep on hand if you’re raising Monarch butterfly caterpillars at home or in a school situation. Generally, caterpillars prefer fresh young milkweed leaves. So, towards August and September when most local Milkweeds are still green but their leaves have usually toughened a bit, it’s advisable to have on hand some Tropical Milkweed plants, whose foliage always remain tender.

Even if a caterpillar eats most of the leaves on a Tropical Milkweed plant, the leaves will grow back. Its clustered red and yellow blossoms are beautiful, and like most annuals, they bloom for months . If you’re raising caterpillars indoors, get enough plants so that you can rotate them in your rearing cages (see our store for all the needed caterpillar rearing paraphernalia), always keeping your caterpillars happy and well-fed.

Besides being an attractive host plant for Monarch caterpillars, Tropical Milkweed attracts a wide variety of butterflies, bees. beetles, and hummingbirds that feed on its abundant nectar. The plant is hardy to zone 7 and may reseed in protected areas.