It also makes Monarch and Queen butterflies taste bad to potential predators, an effective defense mechanism.

Each flower has 5 pale green petals that cup upward around 5 prominent white hoods (which store nectar).

The pollen sticks together as granular masses contained on a pollinarium structure located within each of the 5 stigmatic chambers.

Pollination of Antelope Horns happens when flowers are visited by insects that get their reward in nectar (in this case primarily sucrose) which is accessible at the base of each of the hoods.

Several different types of insects visit milkweed searching for nectar including bees, butterflies, moths, flies and beetles.

When the insect visits another milkweed flower carrying this pollinarium, there is a chance a pollinium would slip into an empty stigmatic slit, dislodge, and remain there.

In addition to the monarch, it is a larval host to the dogbane tiger moth, the queen butterfly, and the unexpected cycnia.

[5][6] In cultivation, this species favors quickly draining soil that is high in inorganic matter, such as sand and rock chips.