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Red Butterfly Bloodflower
Bloodflower (Asclepias curassavica) is a nonnative perennial plant from South America that the Chicago Botanic Garden grows from seed and uses as a warm-season annual. It is a member of the milkweed family, which includes butterfly weed (A. tuberosa), prairie milkweed (A. sullivantii), and swamp milkweed (A. incarnata), midwestern native perennials in the Garden's permanent collection. The sepals of 'Red Butterfly' are scarlet and the crowns are yellow. Milkweed flowers form seedpods from which seeds with silky hairs are dispersed by wind. Bloodflower is a host plant for monarch and queen butterfly larvae and its nectar attracts many other species of butterflies to the Garden.