This wildflower does not transplant well as it has a deep woody taproot. Many a child and adult have gleefully pulled the seeds from a ripened, opened pod and let them float gracefully on a gentle breeze.īutterfly weed is commonly planted in formal garden borders and in meadow and prairie gardens. The fruit is a pod containing numerous brown seed each with a tuft of silky white hairs. The flower consists of five petals pointing down and topped by a crown of five erect hoods.
The inflorescence is slightly rounded to flat and made up many individual flowers. Unlike other species of milkweed butterfly weed does not contain the characteristic thick milky sap but instead has a watery translucent sap. Pleurisy root was listed in the American Pharmacopoeia and the National Formulary until 1936.īutterfly weed is a coarse perennial forb consisting of many stems. In colonial America, dried leaves of butterfly weed and skunk cabbage were made into a tea to treat chest inflammations thus giving butterfly weed an alternative name: pleurisy root. Many tribes used various parts of the butterfly weed as food. Native Americans harvested fibers from the dried stems that were made into ropes and used in weaving cloth. This beautiful native wildflower is found from Maine to South Dakota to the desert southwest to Florida. The species name tuberose refers to the tuberous (knobby and with swellings) roots.īutterfly weed grows commonly in dry open habitats and is very common in the prairies and grasslands of the Midwest and Great Plains. The genus name Asclepias is named after the Greek god of medicine Asklepios. Butterfly Milkweed ( Asclepias tuberosa L.)īutterfly weed is a member of the milkweed family (Asclepiadaceae). USDA PLANTS Database.īutterfly milkweed ( Asclepias tuberosa).
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