Narrow leaf milkweed

This milkweed is the most widespread of California’s fourteen native species. Only the deserts of the southeast manage to exclude it. This is my local milkweed with a few patches growing within a twenty minute walk from my home in West San Jose. Narrowleaf milkweed grows as a patch of three foot stems with whorls ... Read more

Pictures and description of Asclepias fascicularis, California Narrowleaf Milkweed.

When most people think of planting milkweed for monarch butterflies, they imagine common milkweed (A. syriaca) with its big, rounded leaves.

Found on dry slopes and valleys throughout California. 2-3 feet tall, with narrow gray-green leaves. Ivory-pink flowers occur in clusters. Dormant in fall/winter. Shortly after planting this in Los Altos Hills we found it covered with caterpillars who ate it to the ground. We planted several more, worrying over the obvious shortage of this food source. All plants were eaten to the ground quickly. We assumed the plants were dead but the following spring the hillside was covered with…

Narrow leaf milkweed is a robust perennial native to many habitats and conditions across all of California. This easy to grow plant is often part of wildlife gardens and restoration projects where it can be planted from seed to mix with native grasses and wildflowers. It is one of several milkweeds that are well known […]

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Narrow-leaf Milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) is native to the western United States. This plant has grayish-pink, lavender, greenish-white or white flowers that bloom from May to October. It is hardy in zones 6-10. -- Image credit: Thayne Tuason, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Asclepias fascicularis (Narrowleaf Milkweed) is a flowering perennial boasting attractive clusters, 4-5 in. across (10-12 cm), of lavender and white, starry flowers from early summer to fall. Flowers are a great source of nectar for butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, and other beneficial insects.

Narrow leaf milkweed