Species
+

Asclepias subulata Decne.

Rush milkweed, desert milkweed, rush milkweed

Climate known 58 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Asclepias subulata is a species of milkweed known commonly as the rush milkweed, desert milkweed or ajamete. This is an erect perennial herb which loses its leaves early in the season and stands as a cluster of naked stalks. Atop the stems are inflorescences of distinctive flowers. Each cream-white flower has a reflexed corolla that reveals the inner parts, a network of five shiny columns, each topped with a tiny hook. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Asclepias subulata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Asclepias

Asclepias is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to humans and many other species, primarily due to the presence of cardenolides. However, as with many such plants, some species feed upon milkweed leaves or the nectar from their flowers. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Asclepias”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
Decne.
Native to
Arizona, California, Nevada +1
Wild records
1574 in range· 454 open

At a glance

Warmest month
38°C
Jul, mean day; nights 26 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
136mm/yr
no wet month · peak Jan 20 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–54DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March and August to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March and August to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 136 mm a year, wettest January at 20 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 54 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March and August to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March and August to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (98 mm of 136 mm) falls in December to March and August to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 19.9 °C against a yearly mean of 22.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February to March and June to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 136 mm a year, wettest January at 20 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

136 mm a year at the habitat, 98 mm of it December to March and August to September. Wettest month January at 20 mm, driest June at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 92 mm to 366 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 54 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 54 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 2.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.5 °C, the absolute minimum -2.5 °C, 11 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 47.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.1 °C in December (across the envelope cells 4.5 °C to 16.0 °C), warmest day 37.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 42 to 49% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 19 °C in Dec to 38 °C in Jul; mean night from 8 °C in Dec to 26 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 136 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 789 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -2.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 47.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost47.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-2.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 21–54RH 42–49 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 789 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C19 / 16–2321 / 17–2524 / 19–2728 / 21–3132 / 22–3536 / 25–4038 / 28–4237 / 29–4134 / 28–3829 / 25–3223 / 20–2719 / 15–24
Night °C8 / 5–159 / 6–1511 / 8–1614 / 11–1818 / 13–2122 / 16–2526 / 19–2826 / 20–2823 / 19–2617 / 15–2312 / 9–198 / 5–16
Rain mm20 / 13–4319 / 7–4614 / 2–424 / 1–142 / 0–41 / 0–29 / 3–3716 / 5–8411 / 6–10911 / 6–2811 / 6–2518 / 13–38
DLI23 / 21–2929 / 27–3539 / 37–4348 / 46–4952 / 51–5354 / 50–5550 / 45–5145 / 42–4740 / 38–4133 / 31–3625 / 23–3121 / 19–27
RH %49 / 45–5748 / 44–5645 / 41–5743 / 37–5742 / 35–5942 / 33–5944 / 37–6046 / 40–6045 / 39–6245 / 40–5846 / 41–5749 / 45–57

Each figure is the median across the 789 grid cells holding the 1521 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1123:1272 (33.825, -116.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 47.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 789 distinct grid cells holding the 1521 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1123:1272 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.00_-116.250, lapse-corrected -829 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 95 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArizona, California, Nevada, Mexico Northwest
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.292, -116.148 · in the densest population, 664 records (42% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1574 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 454 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 199 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 53 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1574 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Asclepias subulataAsclepias subulataAsclepias subulataAsclepias subulataAsclepias subulataAsclepias subulataAsclepias subulataAsclepias subulata

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Sue Carnahan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Dominic Gentilcore, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Asclepias subulata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Phylogenetic ecology of leaf surface traits in the milkweeds (Asclepias spp.): chemistry, ecophysiology, and insect behavior
Anurag A. Agrawal, Mark Fishbein, Reinhard Jetter, Juha‐Pekka Salminen (2009) · New Phytologist
Na+/K+-ATPase: More than an Electrogenic Pump
R. Contreras, Antonio Torres-Carrillo, Catalina Flores-Maldonado, Liora Shoshani (2024) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
An account of the mammals and birds of the lower Colorado Valley : with especial reference to the distributional problems presented
Joseph Grinnell (1914) · University of California publications in zoology/UC publications in zoology
Incredible use of plant-derived bioactives as anticancer agents
Kiran Kangra, Saloni Kakkar, Vineet Mittal, Virender Kumar (2025) · RSC Advances
Apocináceas de ayer y hoy. Conocimiento histórico y reevaluación de la diversidad y distribución de Apocynaceae en México
Leonardo O. Alvarado‐Cárdenas, Lucio Lozada-Pérez, Carla Sofía Islas-Hernández, Ericka B. Cortez (2020) · Botanical Sciences
Calotropis gigantea stem bark extract induced apoptosis related to ROS and ATP production in colon cancer cells
Thanwarat Winitchaikul, Suphunwadee Sawong, Damratsamon Surangkul, Metawee Srikummool (2021) · PLoS ONE
Antiproliferative activity of spinasterol isolated of Stegnosperma halimifolium (Benth, 1844)
Salvador Enrique Meneses-Sagrero, Moisés Navarro-Navarro, Eduardo Ruíz-Bustos, Carmen Lizette Del‐Toro‐Sánchez (2017) · Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal
Reynosin and santamarine: two sesquiterpene lactones fromAmbrosia confertiflorawith bactericidal activity against clinical strains ofMycobacterium tuberculosis
Enrique Wenceslao Coronado-Aceves, Carlos Velázquez, Ramón Enrique Robles‐Zepeda, Manuel Jiménez‐Estrada (2016) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Activity of Some Medicinal Plants from Baja California Sur (Mexico)
J.I. Murillo-Ãlvarez, D.R. Encarnación, Scott G. Franzblau (2001) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Cardenolides and a lignan from asclepias subulata
Shivanand D. Jolad, Robert B. Bates, Jack R. Cole, Joseph J. Hoffmann (1986) · Phytochemistry
Flora en playas y dunas costeras de México
Ileana Espejel, Oscar Jiménez-Orocio, Gonzálo Castillo-Campos, Pedro P. Garcillán (2017) · Acta Botanica Mexicana

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Asclepias 10 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.