Antelope-horns flower globe
In this morning’s post you saw a closeup of two flowers of antelope-horns, Asclepias asperula. I mentioned that they were part of a globe of flowers, but perhaps I should have added that a globe is a common (but not mandatory) shape for the inflorescence of this species. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then let me save about 900 more of them and show you one of those flower globes now. The photograph is from April 1, 2013, on the right-of-way beneath the large power lines west of Morado Circle. I think you’ll find this a good example of global forming.
© 2014 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Fabulous looking plant! Thanks for showing us the close-up details too 🙂
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
June 1, 2014 at 3:26 PM
You’re welcome. It dawned on me after the previous post that many readers, even in the United States, wouldn’t know that this species often produces flower globes.
Steve Schwartzman
June 1, 2014 at 3:50 PM
It’s a bit like the wonderful alliums that are in full bloom here at the moment 🙂 The globes are fabulous and sculptural but I love the individual flowers too!
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
June 1, 2014 at 4:31 PM
Sculptural and fabulous are good ways to describe these globes (and the individual flowers are strange, too, in a good way). Milkweeds aren’t native where you are, but I’m glad your Alliums are blooming now; ours have long since passed that stage and probably won’t be back till next spring.
Steve Schwartzman
June 1, 2014 at 5:11 PM
I have some photos in Lightroom from a fabulous allium display at Wisley that I’ll try to get up soon 🙂
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
June 1, 2014 at 5:32 PM
Yes, do.
Steve Schwartzman
June 1, 2014 at 6:56 PM
🙂
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
June 1, 2014 at 9:41 PM
I would be one of those readers. 🙂
Gallivanta
June 2, 2014 at 5:01 AM
Or would have been, but are no longer.
Steve Schwartzman
June 2, 2014 at 5:13 AM
Yes.
Gallivanta
June 2, 2014 at 5:21 AM
That looks familiar. Our species has a red-orange flower shaped the same basic way.
Jim in IA
June 1, 2014 at 3:43 PM
You’re right. Other Asclepias species have similar structures. For example, two years ago I showed a milkweed that’s native to the eastern U.S.:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/guest-post-1-common-milkweed/
Do you know which species you have?
Steve Schwartzman
June 1, 2014 at 3:53 PM
This one, I think. I assume they are more widely found than the map shows.
http://uipress.lib.uiowa.edu/ppi/display.php?record=Asclepias_syriaca
Jim in IA
June 1, 2014 at 4:18 PM
What a coincidence: Asclepias syriaca is the same species I photographed in Massachusetts and linked to in my reply to your first comment. In spite of the name, the species is native in the United States and is not from Syria.
Distribution maps often have gaps in them, and a “blank” county may just mean that no one has yet reported that the species in question has been found there.
Steve Schwartzman
June 1, 2014 at 4:59 PM
One of the more interesting insects that live on our milkweeds is the Milkweed Beetle. http://www4.uwm.edu/fieldstation/naturalhistory/bugoftheweek/red-milkweed-beetle.cfm
As the article describes they have interesting features and make use of the toxins in the plant. As a kid, I learned how to pick them up carefully with two fingers, one on each side. I would hold them up close to my ear and hear them squeak.
Jim in IA
June 1, 2014 at 3:50 PM
That’s one colorful beetle. I’ve seen others with bright colors, but I’ve never been fortunate enough to hear one squeak. If you can get the right kind of equipment you might try to make a recording.
Making use of milkweed toxins is the familiar ploy of monarch caterpillars (and then butterflies).
Steve Schwartzman
June 1, 2014 at 3:58 PM
“good example of global forming”? I’d say GREAT example! Really, this is terrific.
Susan Scheid
June 1, 2014 at 4:22 PM
Thanks, Susan. I was doing a bit of wordplay by changing one sound in the phrase “global warming.” Language aside, these milkweed globes caught my attention as early as around 1979, long before I got interested in native plants. I remember the specific place where I first saw one of these globes, and I knelt to smell the strange flowers, which turned out to be quite fragrant. Not till two decades later did I learn what I’d encountered.
Steve Schwartzman
June 1, 2014 at 5:05 PM
I’m rather partial to the magenta/pink flowers of our local milkweed, but these creamy inflorescences are quite lovely.
Steve Gingold
June 1, 2014 at 5:11 PM
Is yours the Asclepias syriaca that I photographed in the Berkshires two years ago?
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/guest-post-1-common-milkweed/
I’m certainly fond of our creamy ones.
Steve Schwartzman
June 1, 2014 at 6:41 PM
That it be.
Steve Gingold
June 1, 2014 at 6:48 PM
It’s native and familiar to you but I was a stranger in a strange land and had to figure out what it was after I photographed it in the Berkshires.
Steve Schwartzman
June 1, 2014 at 6:58 PM
I would rather global forming than global warming.
Gallivanta
September 3, 2015 at 8:23 AM
Good one! I’m glad to see you warming up to the subject.
Steve Schwartzman
September 3, 2015 at 8:27 AM
I blame the spring air. It’s balmy.
Gallivanta
September 3, 2015 at 8:32 AM
If you were in Texas and talking about the advent of spring you’d be balmy indeed.
In another couple of weeks here we should begin to notice, especially in the morning, the first faint cooling down of late summer.
Steve Schwartzman
September 3, 2015 at 8:40 AM