Asclepias syriaca
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Description: Uses and description of Common Milkweed.
Source: James A. Duke. 1983. Handbook of Energy Crops. unpublished. Gaertner (1979) speaks of milkweed as "the greatest underachiever among plants. Its potential appears great, yet until now it has never been continuously processed for commerical purposes." The latex has been suggested as a suitable replacement for chicle in chewing gum rather than for rubber in tires. It was once cultivated in Europe for bee fodder and fiber. Two types of fiber are obtainable, the long, quite strong but brittle bast fiber and the seed hairs. Pulp from the fiber yields a good paper. During World War II, the seed hairs, being rather springy, light and waterproof, were used to replace kapok in life jackets. Flowers are reported to be a source of sugar and have been used, with sugar and lemon, to make wine. Gaertner says, "Milkweed makes an attractive pot herb in many forms: first as a young shoot, then as unopened buds, and finally as pods, while these are still young, and the seeds are not yet differentiated." I have tried all these, discarding my first "potlikker", and found them quite palatable. Some Indian groups dried the flower buds in summer for use in winter soups (Erichsen-Brown, 1979). I have not tried the "boiled roots" which Kloss (1939) states "taste similar to asparagus." I suspect this is a typo for shoots.
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WEBSITE Info
| Page title: | Asclepias syriaca |
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| IP-address: | 128.210.161.215 |
WHOIS Info
| NS | Name Servers: NS.PURDUE.EDU 128.210.11.5 NS1.RICE.EDU |
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| Date | activated: 24-Apr-1985 last updated: 11-Nov-2010 expires: 31-Jul-2014 |