Asclepias cutleri

Plant: perennial herb, 10-20 cm high; stems ascending, sparingly branched below, strigose-pubescent with appressed-ascending to loosely spreading hairs; milky sap Leaves: irregularly alternate to approximate, sessile, the blades narrowly linear, 1-8 cm long, 1-3 mm broad, acute at the apex, attenuate at the base, pubescent to rather strigose, or more or less glabrate below INFLORESCENCE: UMBELS terminal and lateral at the upper nodes, 1-3 cm broad, sessile or the peduncles to 0.2 cm long Flowers: small; calyx lobes 2-3 mm long; corolla purple to pinkish, the lobes 4-5 mm long; hoods off-white, erect-ascending, hemispheric, widening upward to a more or less truncate, marginally-lobed rim, 2-2.8 mm long, 1.6-2.2 mm broad, ca. 1 mm shorter than the gynostegium or the triangular marginal lobes about equalling it, the horns attached below to near the middle of the hoods, tangentially flat, ovate-attenuate, erect, short-exserted to about the height of the marginal lobes; anther wings 1.1-1.2 mm long; corpusculum ca. 0.25 mm long, the pollinia 0.4-0.5 mm long Fruit: follicles more or less pendulous on spreading or drooping pedicels, ca. 5 cm long Misc: Sandy and gravelly substrates; 1300-1600 m (4300-5200 ft); Apr-Jun REFERENCES: Sundell, Eric. 1994. Asclepiadaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 27, 169-187.

Nabhan et al 2015

Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Very low growing with slender stems. This delicate plant is nearly hairless and produces several few-flowered umbels. Leaves: The leaves are opposite or nearly so, and narrow-about 3 inches in length. Flowers: A few small flowers, purple with white hoods, make up the less than 1-inch diameter umbels. Fruits: Produces small pods 2-3 inches in length about a half inch wide. Ecology: Found on sand dunes in weakly stabilized sand, from 4,000-5,500 ft (1219-1676 m); flowers April to June. Distribution: Found in northern Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. Notes: A narrow endemic found only on the Colorado Plateau. Synonyms: None Editor: AHazelton 2015