Bloodflower
Asclepias curassavica · Garden flowers
Bloodflower, close on the buds
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 13 August 2026
Bloodflower, or tropical milkweed, close enough to see the two-tier construction of each flower: five red petals bent back, and above them a crown of five yellow hoods, each with a tiny horn, that hold the nectar and the pollen. The magenta buds are still tight beside the open flowers, and a spike carries every stage at once. Native to the American tropics rather than to the north-east, and a plant that divides opinion among monarch enthusiasts: the caterpillars take it readily, but because it doesn't die back in a mild autumn it can hold monarchs in the north past the point they should have left, and carries a parasite that builds up on plants that never go dormant.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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