Gomphocarpus fruticosus(L.) W.T.Aiton

African milkweed

WFO wfo-0000705657 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Gomphocarpus fruticosus, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. a Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-10 / obs. 205712351
Gomphocarpus fruticosus, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. b Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203611635
Gomphocarpus fruticosus, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. c Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 188449306
Gomphocarpus fruticosus, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. d Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 185796343
Gomphocarpus fruticosus, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. e Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 185185237
Gomphocarpus fruticosus, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. f Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 184784655
Gomphocarpus fruticosus, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. g Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 179761372
Gomphocarpus fruticosus, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 179691686

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 24 botanical countries

Regions where Gomphocarpus fruticosus is native: Angola, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen AngolaBotswanaCape ProvincesCaprivi StripDjiboutiEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNorthern ProvincesSomaliaSudan-South SudanUgandaZambiaZimbabweOmanSaudi ArabiaYemen
Native distribution of Gomphocarpus fruticosus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Cape Provinces CPP
Caprivi Strip CPV
Djibouti DJI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Oman OMA ASIA-TEMPERATE
Saudi Arabia SAU
Yemen YEM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 372 in flower of 665 examined

Peak flowering in Nov. Each bar is the share of Gomphocarpus fruticosus observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 372 of 665 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 16 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Apocynum salicifolium Medik.
  • Asclepias cornuta (Decne.) Cordem.
  • Asclepias crinita (G.Bertol.) N.E.Br.
  • Asclepias decipiens N.E.Br.
  • Asclepias flavida N.E.Br.
  • Asclepias fruticosa L.
  • Asclepias glabra Mill.
  • Asclepias rostrata N.E.Br.
  • Asclepias salicifolia Salisb.
  • Asclepias setosa Forssk.
  • Asclepias villosa Mill.
  • Gomphocarpus arachnoideus E.Fourn.
  • Gomphocarpus cornutus Decne.
  • Gomphocarpus crinitus G.Bertol.
  • Gomphocarpus rostratus (N.E.Br.) Bullock
  • Gomphocarpus setosus (Forssk.) R.Br. ex Schult.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol ASFR13. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.