Common Milkweed (kotolo) Asclepias eriocarpus

The cover drawing and article for this issue of the OBISPOENSIS was written and drawn by Alice Meyer. She was a very active member (and first Hoover Award Recipient in the 1970 and 80’s. She is the one who named our newsletter, OBISPOENSIS, and served as its editor (and typist) for the many years. She is also responsible for setting up the first successful chapter plant sales as well as recruiting our current Plant Sale Chair. She didn’t restrict herself to CNPS. She was also active in the Morro Bay Audubon to which she submitted a number of articles entitled “MEET A NATIVE PLANT’. Below is one of those articles. It was chosen since milkweeds are so important in the conservation of the Monarch butterfly and is being encouraged as a garden plant. Members of this genus serve as the primary food source for Monarch butterfly larva. While eating the milkweed leaves, the larva incorporate the milkweed toxins into their bodies and its these milkweed toxins that protect the Monarch larva from most predators.

I do need to mention a taxonomic update. In her first paragraph Alice places the milkweeds in the taxonomic family, Asclepiadaceae. This was where it was placed up until the 1990’s. Today the two families of milky sapped species [milkweeds (Asclepias) and dogbanes (Apocynum)] have been combined into the single family, Apocynaceae. Milkweeds are primarily temperate in distribution while the dogbane relatives are primarily tropical. Classical taxonomic work always accepted these two families as very closely related. Modern taxonomic studies (including DNA work) have discover the relationships to be intertwined which required their unification into a single family. A number of these formally separated but closely related families have now been combined.

-Dirk Walters

MEET A NATIVE PLANT Asclepias eriocarpus

Milkweed is a perennial plant of the milkweed family (Asclepidiaceae) family. The species shown is common in the Coast Ranges, Sierra Foothills south to Coastal Southern California from 100 to 2000 ft. The species shown is Asclepias eriocarpa (as-KLEP-i-as aor-ee-CARP-a). Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on this plant. The plants are erect and sturdy from 18-36” tall, with leaves 3-4” long, in whorls of 3 or 4 leaves. These are covered with fine hairs, which make them look and feel like flannel. Stems and leaves contain a milky juice, a form of latex.

The clusters of flowers appear in May at the ends of stems between the leaves. The structure of the flowers is very unusual. The corolla is cut into 5 petals. These are turned down so the hide the calyx. The stamens stalks are joined into a tube and the five ‘hoods’ are attached to the base of the column; this is the ‘crown’ of corona, and in this species the crown is pink or purplish. It is actually the nectary of the flower. The flower and its stem is creamy white. In the center of the flower is a fleshy column or tube formed by the stalks of the stamens, capped by the stigma, hiding the two tubes of styles leading down to the ovaries.

The pollen in each anther-cell is a waxy mass of different anthers and adjacent masses of different anthers are attached to a cleft gland. This resembles tiny saddle-bags, clipped together, and if a bee catches her foot in the cleft she may pull out and fly away with two pollen masses to fertilize another flower. To do this, she must get her foot caught in the cleft of another flower.

The probabilities of a bee catching a foot in the cleft of two different flowers, first to collect the pollen sacs, then to deposit them in another flower is so remote that this is called ‘lottery pollination’. When a flower is pollinated its stem enlarges and the petals fall off. The calyx remains at the base of the downy seed pod which becomes 3 to 4” long and the remains of the hoods hang on to the tip of the pod for time. When the pod is ripe, and dry, it splits lengthwise, revealing neat rows of seeds, each with a parachute of fine hairs attached. As soon as the these hairs are dry, the seeds will fly away on the wind to be dispersed. Flowers that have not been pollinated along with their stems, wither and fall away.

-Alice G. Meyer

Common (White) Yarrow (Achillea millefollium)

Common (White) Yarrow (Achillea millefollium)

The plant discussed in this issue of the Obispoensis is one that I’ve wanted to take on for a long time, but could never bring myself to ask Bonnie to draw. Since we are using photos to illustrate it by, I think it’s time. One look at the leaves will indicate the reason for my reluctance. The leaves, which are up to four inches long and two inches wide, are divided two or three times into hundreds (thousands) of long, thin, needle-like segments which are weakly aromatic.

The species epithet (millefollium) translates into ‘thousand (mill) leaf (follia). The leaves spiral up the stem getting smaller higher up the stem. The flowers are small and clustered in heads which are themselves crowded into flat topped clusters. Most plants in the wild produce whitish flowers but occasionally one finds plants baring yellowish or pinkish tinged flowers. These have been selected for deeper colors for use in the garden.

There are many sites on the web that offer these ‘colored’ varieties for sale. The species is extremely variable which would be expected by its essentially worldwide range. It’s found throughout the Northern Hemisphere and just about everywhere in the Southern Hemisphere where humans have settled. A plant with such a wide a distribution as well as a strong correlation with human habitats would certainly be considered an introduced weed. I knew it in the roadsides and pastures of the Midwest, North East and in various weedy and native habitats here in California.

So, where is it native?

One can find any answer you want to believe on the Web. In fact, if I’d been asked where it was native before researching this article, I’d have said Eurasia. I found at least one web site that would have agreed with me. However, a majority of botanical sites as well as the Jepson Manual give its native range as “the entire Northern Hemisphere! So accepting it as a California native plant, where does it grow in California. Answer, practically everywhere there’s they can get sufficient water. Yarrow is found from sea level to over 10,000 feet in a wide variety of habitats (including weedy ones) throughout that altitudinal range. One of the better local places to find it is in our coastal dunes where it can be found spreading across the base of dune slip faces. As such it is serves as an important dune stabilizer. I should point out it is that because of its extreme variability common yarrow has had many scientific names applied to it, but recent thinking have reduced most of them to varieties.

How did it get its name?

The genus, Achillea, was applied to the plant by the Father of Taxonomic Botany, Linnaeus himself in the 1700’s. He named it in Honor of the Greek hero, Achilles. Why did he name it after a non-botanical war hero who was killed in the Battle of Troy? Again if one should look up this plant on the Web, one would find lots and lots of sites that discuss its medicinal uses, many with warnings they are not guaranteeing its effectiveness. In the 17-hundreds yarrow was considered a panacea or a cure-all. The story goes that Achilles was charmed and no weapon could harm him. He’d the protection via his mother dipping him in the river Styx when he was a baby. The River Styx was the transport medium for souls to get to Hades (the land of the dead). However his mother was afraid he would drown if she let go of him completely; so she held him by his heel which therefore did NOT come in contact with waters granting protection. So at Troy, Achilles was killed by a poison arrow which nicked his unprotected heel.

Why bring up Achilles Heel? According to the story told by my major Professor, no modern Pharmacopeia (an official list of medicinal plants) contains yarrow. I.e. after extensive testing, experts have determined that yarrow has NO medicinal value. That Achilea millefolium has no medicinal value “is in fact yarrow’s Achilles heel”.

SOME REALLY SILLY PAST YARROW USES (Source: Botanical.com)

• Put it under your pillow and you will dream a vision of your future spouse
• Snort it as snuff
• Stick it up your nose to either (a) stop a nose bleed, or (b) to start a nose bleed to let blood out of your head to relieve a headache
• Stick it in the other end and it stops your piles from bleeding
• Use it as a shampoo and it will prevent baldness
• Use it in Devil Worship… it was once called ‘The Devil’s Nettle” and maybe not so silly… it was a salad ingredient in the 17th Century, and was mixed with hops to make a more potent beer in Sweden and parts of Africa. Now your’e talking.

– Dr. Dirk Walters (drwalters@charter.net)