Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 277 



COMMON MILK-WEED (Asclepias syriaca) is the 

 most abundant and the best known of the Milk- 

 weeds. It grows everywhere along roadsides, in fields 

 and on the borders of woods. The rather stout stem 

 rises from 2 to 5 feet high and has numerous, oppo- 

 site, large, oblong, short-stemmed leaves of a yellow- 

 green color. Both the leaves and the stem are finely 

 hairy and both yield quantities of a thick, sticky, 

 bitter, milky fluid if they are broken or bruised any- 

 where. It has been found that the outer covering 

 of the stem is extremely delicate and that the tiny, 

 claw-like feet of insects that attempt to crawl up 

 the stalk will cut through this covering sufficiently 

 to cause the feet of such visitors to become sticky 

 with the milky fluid; this not only discourages the 

 would-be pilferers of the flowers' sweets but makes it 

 quite impossible for them to reach the top of the long 

 stem. Ants frequently become so gummed up with 

 the sticky substance that it causes their death. 



The flowers grow in rounded clusters often in a 

 pendent position, from the axils of the upper leaves. 

 They are very fragrant and secrete an abundance of 

 nectar. They are visited by many varieties of bees 

 and butterflies, by one of the latter so frequently that 

 it is known as the Milkweed Butterfly (Anosia plexip- 

 pus.) 



In the Fall, the clusters of lilac-colored flowers have 

 been replaced by large, rough-coated seed-pods that 

 are completely filled with the silkiest of flossy sub- 

 stance attached to the numerous black seeds; final- 

 ly the pod bursts and liberates the seeds, each 

 floating away on the breeze, sometimes aviating for 

 several miles before coming to earth. This provis- 

 ion for the spreading of the seeds results in a wide- 

 ly distributed, strong race, that is ever on the in- 

 crease. 



