| General Information |
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| Distribution | A large genus of about 120 species primarily from temperate North and South America and Africa.
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Habit
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Perennial or rarely annual herbs with milky sap.
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Leaves
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Leaves opposite or whorled.
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Flowers
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Inflorescences an umbellate cyme, flowers numerous. Flowers with corolla white, green, purple, orange, or red, deeply rotate or reflexed, 5-lobed; corona of 5 hoods subtending the anthers, hoods deeply saccate at base, usually bearing an internal horn.
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Fruit
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Fruit a follicle.
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Seeds
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Seeds numerous, flattened, comose or rarely naked.
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Notes
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The name is derived from the Greek asklepias, swallowwort, the name of various species used medicinally for tonsillitis.
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Contributor
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Nancy Khan
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