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Apocynaceae
Blood Flower
Asclepias curassavica
Migration, monarch host, tropical fire.
- Family
- Apocynaceae
- Genus
- Asclepias
- Native to
- Tropical Americas
- Bloom season
- Spring, Summer, Fall
- Type
- Tender perennial
- Height
- 60–120 cm (2–4 ft)
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Soil
- Average, well-drained
- Water
- Moderate
- Hardiness
- 9–11 (annual elsewhere)
- Lifespan
- Tender perennial
Did you know
- Blood flower is one of the very best monarch butterfly host plants on Earth—a single mature specimen can host dozens of caterpillars at once and is constantly replaced by visiting females.
- The brilliant red-and-orange flowers are pollinated by butterflies, hummingbirds, and even tropical bats—they're what monarch butterflies in the wild drink from in their Mexican wintering grounds.
- Despite its many garden virtues, blood flower has become controversial in the U.S.—it doesn't die back in winter, encouraging monarchs to skip migration and become infected with a deadly parasite.
- Like all milkweeds, the milky sap contains heart-active glycosides that make monarch caterpillars (and the adult butterflies) toxic to most predators.
- In its native Caribbean and tropical Latin America, the plant was used by Indigenous peoples as a heart medicine and as a contraceptive—both extremely risky given its toxicity.
Color meanings
0
migration
1
monarch host
2
tropical fire