Asclepias syriaca
Asclepias syriaca
| Order | [[]] |
|---|---|
| Family | [[]] |
| Genus | Asclepias |
2n =
Origin : area of origin
wild or cultivated
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Description
Popular names
Classification
Cultivars
History
Uses
Asclepias syriaca Linn. Asclepiadeae. MILKWEED. SILKWEED. North America. Kalm [1] says the French in Canada use the tender shoots of milkweed in spring, preparing them like asparagus, and that they also make a sugar of the flowers; a very good, brown, palatable sugar. Fremont [2] found the Sioux Indians of the upper Platte eating the young pods, boiling them with the meat of the buffalo. Jefferys [3], in his Natural History of Canada, says: "What they call here the cotton-tree is a plant which sprouts like asparagus to the height of about three feet and is crowned with several tufts of flowers; these are shaken early in the morning before the dew is off of them when there falls from them with the dew a kind of honey, which is reduced into sugar by boiling; the seed is contained in a pod which encloses also a very fine sort of cotton." In 1835, Gen. Dearborn [4] of Massachusetts recommended the use of the young shoots of milkweed as asparagus, and Dewey [5] says the young plant is thus eaten. In France the plant is grown as an ornament.