314 



APOCYNACEAE (DOGBANE FAMILY) 



BLACK INDIAN HEMP 

 Apocynum cannabinum, L. 



Other English names: American Hemp, Indian Physic, Choctaw 

 Root, Bowman's Root, Amy Root, Dropsy Root, Rheumatism 

 weed. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: June to August. 



Seed-time: August to October. 



Range: Anticosti to British Columbia, southward to Florida, Texas, 

 and southern California. 



Habitat : Moist soil ; fields and thickets. 



Nearly related to the Spreading Dogbane, quite as obnoxious, 

 but lacking its beauty. This plant is valuable medicinally, 

 and the roots, gathered in autumn, 

 cleaned, and dried, bring eight to ten 

 cents a pound in the drug market; 

 the inner bark yields a fine and very 

 strong fiber, but no commercial use 

 is made of it. 



Root deep, vertical, branching. 

 Stems one to five feet tall, smooth, 

 erect, with ascending branches. 

 Leaves two to four inches in length, 

 oblong, pointed at both ends or 

 sometimes rounded at base, entire, 

 pale green, smooth above, occasion- 

 ally somewhat hairy beneath, those 

 on the main stem having distinct 

 petioles, those on the branches often 

 nearly sessile. Flowers terminal 

 (sometimes axillary) in rather dense 

 cymes, held erect; calyx with five 

 lobes, nearly as long as the tube of 

 the very small, five-lobed,' greenish 

 x i- white corolla. Pods in pairs, similar 



to those of the Spreading Dogbane. (Fig. 219.) 



Means of control the same as for the preceding species. 



FIG. 219. Black Indian 

 Hemp (Apocynum cannabinum). 



