Asclepias curassavica L.

• Common Name: Blood-flower
• Family: Apocynaceae Juss.

• Country of Origin: Trop. America
• Habitat:

• Description: Showy perennial to 1 m with woody base, stems with milky sap; oblanceolate leaves 5-15 cm long, the flowers in umbels with reflexed, 5 parted corolla brilliant red-purple, exposing the crown of 5 orange horned hoods.

• Uses: Medicinal: ETHNOBOTANY: WORLDWIDE USES (from Rainforest Tropical Plant Database Leslie Taylor 2005

  Brazil as a poison, Costa Rica for warts, Dominican Republic as an emetic and vulnerary; for fevers, Elsewhere for dysentery, gonorrhea, headaches, intestinal worms, leprosy, piles, parasites, tumors(abdomen); as an diaphoretic, emetic, hemostat, purgative, styptic, sudorific, and vermifuge Haiti as a depurative, emetic, pectoral, poison(veterinary); for fever, Mexico for Cancer, as an emetic, poison, purgative, and vermifuge; for rabies, sores, tuberculosis, Samoa as an emetic, poison, Trinidad for sores, venereal diseases, Turkey as an astringent, emetic, hemostat, purgative, vermifuge, Venezuela for caries, leprosy, leucorrhea; as an astringent, purgative

Additional images for this accession:

Flowering Data:

Accession Data:

• Accession # 198500664
• Source: Unknown
• Recorded Vouchers: CONN Accession #: 129354
• Accession Date: 12-31-1985
• Bench: 1301 - NEO:Caribbean A
• Qty: 1 confirmed on 06-19-2013

Classification:

• Division: Magnoliophyta
• Class: Magnoliopsida
• SubClass: euasterid I
• Order: Gentianales
• SubOrder:
• Family: Apocynaceae
• SubFamily: Asclepiadoideae
• Tribe: Asclepiadeae
• SubTribe: Asclepiadinae

References:

1. Exotica by AB Graf

data regenerated on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 07:43:27 -0400