California Milkweed Care

Asclepias californica is a species in the Apocynaceae (Dogbane) family known by the common name California milkweed. It is native to California and northern Baja California from the East Bay region southward and the foothills of the Sierras. It is a flowering perennial with thick, white, woolly stems which bend or run along the ground. The plentiful, hanging flowers are rounded structures with reflexed corollas and starlike arrays of bulbous anthers. The flowers are dull to bright shades of lavender or pink and form an attractive contrast with the grey/white foliage. This plant was eaten as candy by the Kawaiisu tribes of indigenous California; the milky sap within the leaves is said to be flavorful and chewy when cooked.

It can be invasive in the US.