VOL. LX— NO. 10 



HAMILTON, ILL., OCTOBER, 1920 



MONTHLY, $1.50 A YFAR 



. A MILKWEED THAT CLIMBS 



BY EDWIN G. BALDWIN, PH. D. 



PLANTS are as particular as peo- 

 ple in their preferences for cer- 

 tain places. Odd, how "picky 

 and choosey" some people are about 

 where they live. There are many 

 representatives of the vegetable king- 

 dom that will grow in very limited 

 localities only and will thrive in still 

 more circumscribed areas. The pre- 

 dilections of plants and trees for 

 their favorite regions of growth are 

 as pronounced as those of the most 

 fastidious humans. For example, the 

 black mangrove refuses to make its 

 abode save where its roots can get a 

 taste of brackish water, south of the 

 29th degree of latitude. The fire- 

 weed (willow herb) refuses to flour- 

 ish unless its trail has first been 

 blazed by fire; then it straightway 

 leaps forth. Phoenix-like, from the 

 ashes. In a wider sense the same is 

 true of the Tupelo-gum, the pecan 

 and other trees, plants and shrubs. 



Probably no plant is more particu- 

 lar about its habitat than the Gono- 

 lobus, or vining milkweed. There are 

 several species of the genus, but the 

 one of special interest to beekeepers, 

 for reasons to be stated later, is the 

 Gonolobus laevis, the type-species of 

 them all. Very little information 

 about the vine can be obtained from 

 the botanical books in the public li- 

 braries, or even from the more spe- 

 cialized \«olumes of the university de- 

 partmental collections. The average 

 work in botany is content to state 

 something about as follows : 



"The plant occurs rather frequently 

 along river banks from Pennsylvania, 

 west to Kansas and southward." 



The single phrase "along river 

 banks" gives the reader only a very 

 genera! impression of the favorite 

 habitat of Gonolobus and a still more 

 limited idea of the exact regions of 

 its growth. It was during two years 

 spent in extension work among the 

 beekeepers of Indiana that the writer 

 first became interested in the vining 



milkweed and its commercial import- 

 ance as a honey plant. But the ab- 

 sence of any adequate data on it, and 

 even the lack of knowledge among 

 the beekeepers generally regarding 

 its value as a honey producer, stimu- 

 lated the writer to begin a systematic 

 study of the vine and its value, habits 

 and habitat; of its vicious qualities 

 as well, for it is not an unmixed 

 blessing. Several articles have ap- 

 peared regarding the vine as a honey 

 producing plant, and the readers of 

 the various bee magazines have been 

 told that there is such a honey pro- 

 ducing plant as the vining milkweed. 



but the regional differences have not 

 been emphasized nor clearly defined. 



The Plant 



Many of the members of the milk- 

 weed family are valuable to the bee- 

 keeping fraternity as nectar secreting 

 plants, but the vining milkweed seems 

 to be the only one to yield surplus 

 honey in any quantity. It is a true 

 vine, and yet a real milkweed. In lux- 

 uriant growth it is almost equal to 

 the rank Kudzu recently imported 

 from Japan. The huge seed pod, 

 filled when ripe with fluffy, downy 

 seeds that float on the lightest 

 breeze, would convince anyone that it 

 is a milkweed. The inconspicuous 

 flowers, bluish white in color, are in 

 striking contrast to the broad, dark 



green leaves, to the giant seed pods 

 and to the coarse, rank vine. Thei; 

 leaves are heart-shaped, not unlike 'i 

 those of the large species of Convol- 

 vulus, or morning glory. 



Its Habitat 



On suitable soils it grows won- 

 drously, thriving best in alluvial lands 

 along fresh water courses, especially 

 along bottom lands of river courses, 

 where inundations are frequent. 

 While it is occasionally reported as 

 growing on hillsides and in thickets 

 and fence corners, its real home is 

 the rich, black loam of the overflowed 

 lands. 



It has been reported as found grow- 

 ing in West Virginia, notably in Put- 

 nam and Mason Counties, and abund- 

 antly about Charleston, W. Va., on 

 the banks of the Kanawha River. 

 Ohio reports it through the southern 

 part of the State, it being found most 

 abundantly in those counties border- 

 ing the Ohio river, viz.: Washington, 

 Scioto, Brown, Clermont and Hamil- 

 ton, and also in a few counties far- 

 ther north, Montgomery, Ross and 

 Warren. In Kentucky it is very com- 

 mon, being most frequently met with 

 in the northern part of the State bor- 

 dering the Ohio River. It has been 

 reported from Henderson, Louisville, 

 Ludlow and Owensboro, for exam- 

 ple, along the river just named; also 

 from Tyrone, on the Kentucky River, 

 from Versailles, Woodford County. 

 It is occasionally found as far east 

 as Natural Bridge (Wolf County), 

 and at Harlan, in Harlan County, 

 both places being in the foothills of 

 the Blue Ridge Mountains. Bowling 

 Green also reports it in Warren 

 County. Tennessee is not favorable, 

 apparently, to the plant; in fact, the 

 heads of the Department of Botany 

 in both Vanderbilt University and 

 Peabody College there report that 

 they have never seen the plant grow- 

 ing in the State ; moreover, Gattinger 

 makes no mention of it in his "Flora 



