ASCLEPIADACE^ 



ASCLEPIADACE^) MILKWEED FAMILY 



Asclepias syriaca, L. 



Pale lavender-brown Common Milkweed, Virginia Silk, 



Cotton-weed, Virginia Swal- 



June-August Silkweed, low-wort, 



Rubber-tree, Wild Cotton. 

 Silky Swallow-wort, 



Asclepias: for derivation see amplexicaulis. 

 Syriaca: Latin for Syria in which country Linnaeus erro- 

 neously thought the species was native. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: fields and waste ground, banks 

 and roadsides. 



THE PLANT: erect, from three to five feet tall; its stems 

 usually unbranched and covered with fine, short, soft 

 hairs, at least above. 



THE LEAVES: scattered; light yellow-green; oblong to 

 broadly ovate; four inches to nine inches long, two inches 

 or more wide; acute or acutish at the apex; narrowed or 

 obtuse or somewhat heart-shaped at the base; petioled; 

 with entire margins; the principal veins stout and wide- 

 spreading, but often turning to join one another toward 

 the edge of the leaf. 



THE FLOWERS: several or many, in loose umbels at the 

 joining of leaf stem and plant stem; the colour of the 

 stems varying in intensity. Albinos have been found. 



THE FRUIT: a rough pod, packed with very silky white 

 down, to which are attached flat, dark brown seeds over- 

 lapping each other, ''like the scales of a fish." 



A plant that one associates with neglected garden patches 

 and dump heaps; a large-leaved plant with pale lavender- 

 brown flowers nodding in loose, fiat-topped clusters at the 

 top of stout and leafy stems. It might be developed for 

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