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January 31, 2006 : Asclepias syriaca
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Keywords: Apocynaceae | Asclepias syriaca L.| near Fallingwater, Pennsylvania
Thank you to Barbara (aka Monceau@Flickr | BPotD Flickr Group Pool | original image) for this photograph of a milkweed taken in Pennsylvania last summer.
Asclepias syriaca, or common milkweed, is widespread throughout eastern and central North America. It is often considered a weed due to its economic impact on crops and toxicity to livestock, but monarch caterpillars consider it otherwise (monarchs feed exclusively on Asclepias spp.). To read more about Asclepias syriaca, Missouri Plants has a good summary, while Purdue University's Center for New Crops and Plant Products discusses its (potential) economic value.
Botany resource link: All of the vascular plants of Antarctica on one web page, by the British Antarctic Survey.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at January 31, 2006 1:15 AM
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Posted by: Michael F at January 31, 2006 5:52 AM
The common milkweed is one of my favorite plant ingredients in handmade paper. The strong silky fibers (bast) just under the outer surface of the stems make a beautiful paper similar to various Japanese washi (handmade papers) made of kozo fibers. Sometimes I add milkweed seed fluff to the paper as a decorative element, but by itself the fluff does not make strong paper.
Posted by: Maureen at January 31, 2006 7:38 AM
What an absolutely amazingly cool link about Antarctica. Thank you!
(Thanks also, many times, for how your site brightens my mornings.)
Posted by: Maire Smith at January 31, 2006 1:14 PM
I thought I'd add a personal story I remembered this morning.
This is probably one of the first few plants I recognized as a child as being "different", that is, something beyond a rose, a tree, a lily, a grass, and so on. My mother would keep a few individual plants in her perennial garden for the monarch caterpillars, but she'd always remove the fruit every year before ripening so that the seed wouldn't spread.
I remember that she would always bring one of the pods inside the house and I'd check on it to see if it had split open, revealing the seed and fluff - something otherworldly to a child on the Prairies.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin 
at January 31, 2006 2:21 PM
I have a childhood memory of being told about milkweed fluff being collected for something for the war effort........that is WW2. Can anyone elaborate?
Posted by: Douglas Mongerson at January 31, 2006 9:32 PM
Many Asclepiadaceae, including Asclepias syriaca, appear to produce their inflorescences by a bifurcation of the shoot apex rather than as a lateral or terminal structure. (The peduncles are non-axillary, each occurring about 60° away from the axil of a leaf). One part of the bifurcation continues as vegetative growth, the other becomes the flower head. Bifurcating growth is unusual in flowering plants although it is common in monilophytes and lycophytes.
See: James R. Nolan (1969) Bifurcation of the stem apex in Asclepias syriaca. American Journal of Botany, 56: 603-609
Posted by: qcronk at February 2, 2006 11:53 AM
Douglas Mongerson's faint memory of milkweed fluff being collected during WW11 is correct. We collected it to be used in as floatation material in life jackets.
Posted by: Knox M. Henry at February 4, 2006 4:57 AM
Here is a fluffy report on the wartime use of milkweed . . touching old photo as well
http://www.arhomeandgarden.org/plantoftheweek/articles/Milkweed.htm
Posted by: Brian Carson at February 4, 2006 8:20 PM
Thanks for the comments, all.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at February 6, 2006 1:14 PM
vorrei cortesemente info su come acquistare questa pianta asclepsias syriaca,
grazie
Posted by: anna at April 25, 2008 12:29 PM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
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Another interesting case (like Scilla peruviana) where Linnaeus was misled over the origin of the plant - it is from North America, not Syria