Asclepias albicans

{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}

{{Speciesbox

| status = {{TNCStatus}}

| status_system = TNC

|image = Asclepias-albicans.jpg

|genus = Asclepias

|species = albicans

|authority = S.Watson

}}

Asclepias albicans is a species of milkweed known by the common names whitestem milkweed and wax milkweed. It is native to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of California, Arizona, and Baja California. This is a spindly erect shrub usually growing {{Convert|1 to 3|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us|frac=2}} tall,{{Cite book |last=Spellenberg |first=Richard |url=https://archive.org/details/nationalaudubons00spel/page/347/ |title=National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers: Western Region |publisher=Knopf |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-375-40233-3 |edition=rev |pages=347–348 |orig-date=1979}} but known to approach {{Convert|4|m|ft|abbr=off}}. The sticklike branches are mostly naked, the younger ones coated in a waxy residue and a thin layer of woolly hairs. The leaves are ephemeral, growing in whorls of three on the lower branches and falling off after a short time. They are linear in shape and up to {{Convert|3|cm|abbr=off|sp=us|frac=4}} long. The inflorescence is an umbel about {{Convert|5|cm|abbr=on|frac=4}} wide which appears at the tips of the long branches and sprouting from the sides at nodes. The inflorescence contains many purple-tinted greenish flowers, each about {{Convert|1.5|cm|abbr=on|frac=4}} wide, with a central array of bulbous hoods, and corollas reflexed back against the stalk. In its native range it is an evergreen perennial. The plant usually blooms all year long. The fruit is a large, long, thick follicle which dangles from the branch nodes. It grows in dry, rocky places in the desert.{{Cite web |title=Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin |url=https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ASAL |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=www.wildflower.org}}

Asclepias albicans is a larval host for the monarch butterfly and the queen butterfly.{{cite journal

|last1=Morris

|first1=Gail M.

|last2=Kline

|first2=Christopher

|last3=Morris

|first3=Scott M.

|date=2015

|title=Status of Danaus plexippus in Arizona

|url=https://www.swmonarchs.org/Top%20Ten%20Findings%20of%20Status%20of%20Danaus%20plexippus%20in%20Arizona.pdf

|journal=Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society

|volume=69

|issue=2

|pages=91–107

|publisher=Southwest Monarch Study

|doi=10.18473/lepi.69i2.a10

|s2cid=87653856

}}{{cite web

|url=https://dbg.org/partner-initiatives/great-milkweed-grow-out/

|title=great milkweed grow out

|publisher=Desert Botanical Garden

|access-date=Nov 20, 2022

}}

The similar A. subulata is found in similar regions.