Botanical name |
Asclepias fruticosa |
Other names |
Milkweed; wild cotton; swan plant; melkbos (Afrikaans); tontelbos (Afrikaans) |
Family |
Asclepiadaceae/ Apocynaceae |
Dimensions |
Small evergreen perennial shrub, usually around 1 m to 1,5 m in height; exudes a milky latex |
Description of stem |
Erect, straight, light green stem that tends to branch higher up only; turns grey to brown in mature specimens |
Description of leaves |
Simple, lanceolate to linear, alternate, glabrous, light green; margin entire, apex sharply pointed |
Description of flowers |
Axillary umbels of 5 to 10 creamy white flowers; lobed and reflexed corolla around laterally flattened corona lobes |
Desciption of seed/fruit |
Inflated green and later light brown, papery pod or follicle; short bristly hair cover the outer surface; dark seeds have silvery cotton wool-like attachments that facilitate wind distribution |
Description of roots |
Sometimes a taproot, but in hard ground a few main roots meander just below the surface of the ground, often further than the height of the plant |
Variation |
|
Propagation and cultivation |
Grown from seed, although it tends to invade and is not often planted |
Tolerances |
Takes over neglected pieces of veld or cultivated fields |
Uses |
In traditional medicine taken as a snuff (ground dried leaves); as leaf infusions used orally for intestinal disorders or in children as an enema as a purgative; also used for headaches and tuberculosis |
Ecological rarity |
Very common |
Pests and diseases |
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Other |
The highveld grassland has twelve species of Asclepias inhabitants; A. fruticosa is a troublesome weed in Australia, at least in Queensland |
Location |
Grassland and disturbed ground; a road-side weed; different soil types |
Distribution (SA provinces) |
All SA provinces |
Country |
South Africa; Lesotho; Swaziland; Zimbabwe; Namibia; Botswana |
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Info also from www.plantzafrica.com |