MILKWEED FAMILY. Asclepiadaceae. 



MILKWEED FAMILY. Asclepiadaceae. 



A large family, widely distributed, most abundant in 

 warm regions; ours are perennial herbs, usually with milky 

 juice and tough fibrous inner bark; leaves generally large, 

 toothless, without stipules; flowers peculiar in shape, in 

 roundish clusters; calyx with a short tube or none and five 

 lobes; corolla five-lobed; stamens five, on the base of the 

 corolla, with short, stout filaments, anthers more or less 

 united around the disk-like stigma, which covers and unites 

 the two short styles of the superior ovary. The two parts 

 of the ovary develop into two conspicuous pods, opening 

 at the side, containing numerous flattish seeds, arranged 

 along a thick, central axis, usually each with a tuft of 

 silky down to waft it about. 



There are many kinds of Asclepias, with oddly-shaped 

 flowers, interesting and decorative in form; calyx rather 

 small, the pointed sepals turned back; corolla with its 

 petals turned entirely back, so as to cover the sepals an 

 expose the peculiar-looking central arrangements of th 

 flower, called the "crown." In the middle is the large, fla 

 shield-shaped, five-lobed or five-angled stigma, surrounde 

 by the anthers, which are more or less united to each othe 

 and to the stigma, encircled by five, odd, little honey 

 bearing hoods, the same color as the petals, each with 

 horn, either enclosed within it or projecting from it, tl 

 whole collection of stigma, anthers, and hoods, forming tl 

 " crown." The pods are thick and pointed. Named fo 

 ^Esculapius, as some of these plants are medicinal. Indian 

 used to make twine from the fibrous bark of some kinds. 



A handsome plant, decorative in forr 

 Showy Milkweed ,, F . ' 



Asdepias speddsa and harmonious m coloring, with a stou 

 Pink stem, from one to four feet tall, and ligh 



Spring, summer bluish-green leaves, usually covered wit 

 ^ est . white down. The flowers are swee 



scented, with woolly pedicels, purplish-pink petals, an 

 waxy, white "hoods," the buds yellowish-pink. Th 

 cluster, about three inches across, sometimes compris 

 as many as fifty flowers and is very beautiful in tone, beiii 

 a mass of delicately blended, warm, soft tints of pin 

 cream, and purple. This grows in canyon bottoms an 

 along streams. 



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