Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is the best known of the 100 or so milkweed species native to North America. The name “common” fits the plant well because when not in bloom, it goes pretty much unnoticed, growing humbly along roadsides, in fields, and in wastelands.
Poisonous Powers
Beneath its dull, gray-green exterior, milkweed is full of uncommon surprises.
- Inside the plant is a sticky white sap that contains a mild poison; its bitter taste warns away many of the animals and insects that try to eat its tender leaves.
- Certain insects, including monarch butterfly larvae, are immune to the toxin. By feeding almost exclusively on milkweed leaves, they are able to accumulate enough of the poison in their bodies to make them distasteful to predators.
Natural Remedies
- Native Americans taught early European settlers how to properly cook milkweed so that they could be safely eaten. (See note below.)
- The milky white sap was applied topically to remove warts, and the roots were chewed to cure dysentery.
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Infusions of the roots and leaves were taken to suppress coughs and used to treat typhus fever and asthma.
Note: Today, experienced foragers have enjoyed eating milkweed, if it is properly identified (there are poisonous lookalikes, such as dogbane) and prepared (boiled). Some common milkweed plants (A. syriaca) are mild tasting while others are bitter (in which case, avoid or boil in several changes of water). If you are new to foraging, have an expert help you to identify, gather, and prepare the plant properly before eating. As with any herb, take a small amount at first, to be sure that you don’t have a reaction.
Caution: Do not get milkweed sap in your eyes (such as rubbing your eyes after touching the sap); wash your hands thoroughly after handling the plant. Also, some people may develop an allergic reaction when the sap touches the skin.
More Surprises
- The stem’s tough, stringy fibers were twisted into strong twine and rope, or woven into coarse fabric.
- In milkweed’s rough pods was another wonderful surprise. The fluffy white floss, attached to milkweed’s flat brown seeds, could be used to stuff pillows, mattresses, and quilts and was carried as tinder to start fires.
- During World War II, the regular material used to stuff life jackets was in short supply, so milkweed floss was called for as a substitute—it is about six times more buoyant than cork!
- Over the years, researchers have investigated growing milkweed for papermaking, textiles, and lubricants, and as a substitute for fossil fuels and rubber. Although these experiments were found economically unfeasible at the time, perhaps they should be revisited, given the rising costs of fuel and other materials.
- In current research, a chemical extracted from the seed is being tested as a pesticide for nematodes.
We doubt if this surprisingly useful plant will run out of surprises anytime soon.
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Milkweed
I remember seeing this milkweed while living up north, but not in any nurseries or fields in N.C. I'd love to have it in my garden along with the other milkweeds I have, any suggestions?
If I pick the pods while they
If I pick the pods while they are green to save the seeds...will they dry properly? Or should I just let them dry naturally on the plant to have viable seeds? My mom has a few plants but she likes to cut them down before winter. I would like to grow my own milkweed using those seeds..so I need an answer soon. Thank you.
Milkweed seeds will not
Milkweed seeds will not mature in a pod taken too soon off the plant. The pod itself is ready for harvest when the seam along it is just starting to open to release the seeds inside. If you squeeze the pod, it should open easily. The pod at this stage might be greenish or brownish. The seeds themselves should be dark, not pale green or white. Store dry seeds in a paper bag in a cool, dry place. When collecting pods, wear gloves--the sap can irritate skin and eyes. Wash hands thoroughly when done.
If this marvelous plant
If this marvelous plant becomes extinct, so will the Monarch Butterfly. It has been around for centuries .
Check your facts. Not only
Check your facts. Not only are the young pods edible and delicious, but so are the young plant shoots and the young flower buds. Milkweed is not poisonous and many people (myself included) eat it regularly. Check out the writings of Samuel Thayer.
Thank you for your feedback.
Thank you for your feedback. We have revised the text to clarify.
You may want to update this
You may want to update this important article to mention that Monsanto and other mfrs. of herbicides and pesticides (Such as Roundup) targets milkweed and other beneficial "weeds".
This has caused a dramatic decline of the Monarch population(not just the bees which are mostly what the media is focusing on right now).
Continued use of Roundup and other such poisons will eventually allow us to witness the extinction of these beautiful and much-needed animals.
I never knew just how bad
I never knew just how bad milkweed really was until now,if I only knew then what I know now,because we used to play with it all the time many years ago,an we were lucky to never have gotten sick :)
We played with it too. But
We played with it too. But none of our games included chewing on it. I'd you randomly chewed on a bunch of stuff as a kid, you had more to worry about than milkweed.
Turns out, I have this in my
Turns out, I have this in my backyard. I would always find it interesting when I would pull it open and find what looked to be the softest cotton id ever seen. It would be slightly sticky and so easy to ruffle the ''cotton''. And here I was touching something with poison. It grows every summer but recently its been growing alittle more rapidly than usual.