Willowy shrub usually 4-5’ tall and wide but can reach up to 10’ tall. Evergreen in warm spots, but cold temperatures can cause leaves to drop briefly.

Full to part sun, moderate to regular water, hardy to about 20°F.

Nectar rich flowers services a multitude of nectar seeking organisms, mostly insects. Granivorous birds may eat the seeds. This is one of a few species of plants that produces a pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA for short). PA’s occur in many plants and are well known to ranchers, being poisonous to livestock (and humans) as they serve to protect the plants from grazing. However, it turns out that the PA isn’t poisonous to butterflies, and is essential to the reproduction of queens and monarchs. When you see them nectaring on plants that contain PAs, over 90% of them are males happily imbibing the alkaloid with the nectar. They convert the PA into a chemical that they use as a sex attractant pheromone that draws in the females. During mating, the male passes the remaining unchanged PA to the female as a “nuptial gift” that once again manifests itself as a toxin, this time rendering her eggs unpalatable to predators! Thus as the butterfly pollinates the flower, the flower provides a molecule that in two ways enables the butterfly to reproduce! The Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) may use this plant as a larval food plant.