Asclepias Quinquedentata, Slimpod Milkweed

Asclepias quinquedentata is a rare species, most common in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico; it also occurs in Arizona, around Flagstaff, and in the mountains of the southeast. Leaves are narrow and linear, sessile or very short-stalked, glabrous to sparsely short-hairy, with ciliate margins and a pointed tip.

Flowers are produced in clusters of four to ten, at the top of the stem and at the upper leaf nodes, on spreading to descending peduncles of up to 3 inches. Flowers are pendent; they have five small greenish, lanceolate calyx lobes, generally hidden by the five green or purplish corolla lobes, fully reflexed. The center of the corona is green, the hoods purple to reddish-pink below, and white at the tip. Horns are white, slightly exserted. Fruits are narrow follicles, up to 6 inches long, angled upwards, on curved stalks - hence the common name of slimpod milkweed.