balloonplant, Asclepias physocarpa

Balloonplant is a South African native that is now showing up in our flower gardens. Like other milkweeds, it is food for monarch butterfly caterpillars. It is a tall plant, attractive in flower, and interesting when fruit develop. The fruit are round and villous, resulting in the alternate common name of family jewels tree. Balloonplant has spread to the wilds of HI, where it is regarded as pottentially invasive. Cultivated, Lenawee Co MI, 9/26/18. Dogbane family, Apocynaceae.