Introduction to The British Gardener's website

Calotropis gigantea

COMMON NAME

Crown Flower or giant milkweed

TYPE

​Shrub

FAMILY

Apocynaceae

NOTES

A large shrub growing to 13 ft tall. It has clusters of waxy flowers that are either white or lavender in color. Each flower consists of five pointed petals and a small "crown" rising from the center which holds the stamens. They were favored by the Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani, who considered them a symbol of royalty and wore them strung into leis. This giant milkweed is an important larval plant for Hawaii's resident monarch butterflies.

GEOGRAPHIC REGION

Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Booc Booc in Somalia and tropical Africa

NATIVE HABITAT

​Dry coastal areas, along the sheltered shores of lagoons, overgrazed pasture land.

WEB SOURCES

wikipedia.org

missouribotanicalgarden.org



Calotropis gigantea