MILKWEED 
597 
and purple flowers, growing in fields and 
waste land. In California A. mexicana and 
A. speciosa are of great value to beekeep¬ 
ers. 
Milkweed has been listed as a honey plant 
in many States, as Massachusetts, North 
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Nebraska, Cali¬ 
fornia, and Michigan; but it is compara¬ 
tively rare in the prairie region. In Michi¬ 
gan, milkweed is very abundant in the 
northern part of the Lower Peninsula in 
Cheboygan, Emmet, Charlevoix, Antrim, 
and Grand Traverse Counties, where an av¬ 
erage of 50 pounds surplus per colony is 
sometimes obtained. When the weather is 
favorable the nectar is secreted very rapid¬ 
ly, and a large colony may gather 13 to 17 
pounds in a single day. A colony has been 
known to bring in an average of 11 pounds 
Common milkweed. 
per day for 10 successive days, and in 
one apiary a yield of 95 pounds per col¬ 
ony was obtained. The plants grow on 
every kind of soil, from a shore sand to 
heavy clay land, but it is chiefly from 
plants growing on heavy soil that the nec¬ 
tar is obtained. In special localities milk¬ 
weed is so abundant as to exclude largely 
all other vegetation. It is classed as a 
noxious weed, and farmers are required by 
law to mow it down and often try to eradi¬ 
cate it; but except on a small scale this is 
impossible. It appears to be spreading; 
and as the raspberry disappears it is yearly 
becomingtmore valuable as a honey plant. 
The common milkweed (A. syriaca) 
blooms from about July 15 to August 15. 
The honey is excellent and compares well 
with that obtained from raspberry. It is 
white, or tinged with 
yellow, and has a 
pleasant fruity fla¬ 
vor somewhat sug¬ 
gestive of quince, 
and with a slight 
tang. It is so .thick 
and heavy that it 
may be necessary to 
warm the combs be¬ 
fore extracting. The 
cappings of the 
comb honey is nearly 
always pearly white. 
It sells readily by 
reason of its fine fla¬ 
vor, and is in every 
way suitable for ta¬ 
ble use. 
The small flowers 
are in flat-topped 
clusters or umbels, 
and are green, white, 
yellow, red, or pur¬ 
ple, but never in our 
species blue. They 
are called pinch-trap 
flowers since they 
possess a remarkable 
clip -mechanism 
fdund in no other 
family of plants in 
the world. 
Many species of 
milkweed are prob¬ 
ably harmless to 
