THE MILKWEED FAMILY 119 



THE MILKWEED FAMILY (Asdepiadaceae) . 



Milkweeds or Silkweeds are widely distributed throughout 

 North America and are best known by their milky juice, opposite 

 or whorled leaves, and flat-topped clusters of showy flowers. 

 They are persistent perennials in waste places and are difficult 

 to suppress in cultivated land. 



Butterfly Weed or Pleurisy-root (Asclepias tuberosa L.) 

 grows from 2 to 3 feet high from long horizontal roots. The 

 whole plant is roughish-hairy and very leafy. The leaves are 

 oblong-ovate, stalkless or with very short footstalks. A showy 

 plant with orange flowers. Abundant in Ontario. 



Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata L.) grows in marshes 

 and ditches from the Atlantic Coast westward to Saskatchewan. 

 About 5 feet high, very leafy, but smooth and with rose-purple 

 or flesh-coloured flowers. 



Common Milkweed or Silkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.) is 

 abundant on roadsides, in waste places, pastures and fields 

 from New Brunswick to Saskatchewan. It is taller than the 

 preceding species, covered with soft, fine hairs; leaves oval, 

 pale underneath. The flowers are deep purple to whitish, 

 flower clusters often nodding. This perennial weed spreads 

 by its broad, winged seeds and by its deep, thick, fleshy, persistent 

 rootstocks. Repeated cutting when in flower, continued from 

 year to year, will suppress it. Salt applied to individual plants 

 after cutting in hot dry weather is said to be efficacious. Deep 

 plowing and thorough cultivation with short rotation of crops 

 will eradicate it from fields. 



There be Plants that have Milk in them when they are cut; as Figs, Old Lettuce, 

 Sow-thistles, Spurge, etc. The cause may be an inception of Putrefaction: For those 

 Milks have all an Acrimony, though one would think they should be Lenitive. . . Lettuce 

 is thought Poysonous, when it is so old as to have Milk, Spurge a kind of poyson in it 

 self ; and as for Sow-Thisiles, though Coneys eat them, yet sheep and Cattle will not touch 

 them; and besides, the Milk of them, rubbed upon Warts, in short time weareth them 

 away: Which showeth the MUk of them to be Corrosive. We see also, that Wheat 

 and other Corn souon, if you take them forth of the Ground, before they sprout, are full 

 of Milk; and the beginning of Germination is ever a kind of Putrefaction of the Seed. 

 Euphobium also hath a Milk, though not very white, which is of great Acrimony. And 

 Saladine hath a yellow Milk, which hath likewise much Acrimony, for it cleanseth the 

 Eyes, it is good also for Cataracts. 



Bacon, Natural History, 1625. 



