Commemorating Asklepios, the Greek God of healing.

Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs, with white latex. Roots fibrous. Leaves herbaceous; mucilage glands present. Corolla wheel-shaped; lobes free at tips, imbricate or sometimes valvate. Annular, corolline and interstaminal coronas absent; staminal corona of 5 erect or ascending, hood-like lobes. Follicles tapered at each end; seeds with hair tufts at one end.

Seed.

Staminal corona of 5 erect or ascending, hood-like lobes.

About 120 species from North and Central America.

Woodson (1954).

Source: Forster, P. (2002). Asclepiadaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.