318 



ASCLEPIADACEAE (MILKWEED FAMILY) 



The horizontal creeping rootstock which makes this plant such 

 a noxious weed is often six or eight feet long, wrinkled, cylindrical, 

 white inside, with a grayish brown bark, warty with the scars of 

 former stems. It is medicinally valuable, and, when collected in 

 autumn, cleaned, transversely sliced and dried, is worth six to eight 

 cents a pound in the drug market. Grazing cattle dislike the bitter, 

 milky juice and the weed is a pest in pastures. When young, the 

 crisp, succulent shoots make an 

 excellent "dish of greens," cooked 

 like asparagus. (Fig. 221.) 



Stem stout, two to five feet tall, 

 softly downy when young but 

 growing smooth with age, erect, 

 and usually simple. Leaves ar- 

 ranged in opposing pairs on alter- 

 nate sides of the stalk, oblong to 

 elliptic, smooth above, finely downy 

 below, entire, the nerves extend- 

 ing from the strong midrib uniting 

 themselves by a bordering thread 

 before reaching the margin ; peti- 

 oles stout, very short. Umbels 

 terminal and lateral, dense, the 

 flowers dull purple to pinkish, 

 fragrant. Follicles three or four 

 inches long, downy, and covered 

 with soft, spinous projections. 

 Seeds very many, brown, flat, 

 their tufts of fine silken hair long 

 and thick. Should they fall on water, Milkweed seeds can float, as 

 well as fly, for each has a corky margin which makes of it a raft. 



FIG. 221. Common Milkweed 

 (Asdepias syriaca). X \. 



Means of control 



Cutting and many times cutting, throughout the growing season, 

 depriving the rootstocks of all sustenance if possible. Plants 

 should not be allowed to form fruit before cutting, for the pods 

 ripen on the stalks. 



