A large family, widely distributed, most abundant in warm regions; ours
are perennial herbs, usually with milky juice and tough fibrous inner
bark; leaves generally large, toothless, without stipules; flowers
peculiar in shape, in roundish clusters; calyx with a short tube or
none and five lobes; corolla five-lobed; stamens five, on the base of
the corolla, with short, stout filaments, anthers more or less united
around the disk-like stigma, which covers and unites the two short
styles of the superior ovary. The two parts of the ovary develop into
two conspicuous pods, opening at the side, containing numerous flattish
seeds, arranged along a thick, central axis, usually each with a tuft
of silky down to waft it about.
There are many kinds of Asclepias, with oddly-shaped flowers,
interesting and decorative in form; calyx rather small, the pointed
sepals turned back; corolla with its petals turned entirely back,
so as to cover the sepals and expose the peculiar-looking central
arrangements of the flower, called the "crown." In the middle is
the large, flat, shield-shaped, five-lobed or five-angled stigma,
surrounded by the anthers, which are more or less united to each other
and to the stigma, encircled by five, odd, little honey-bearing hoods,
the same color as the petals, each with a horn, either enclosed within
it or projecting from it, the whole collection of stigma, anthers, and
hoods, forming the "crown." The pods are thick and pointed. Named for
Æsculapius, as some of these plants are medicinal. Indians used to make
twine from the fibrous bark of some kinds.
[Sidenote: =Showy Milkweed=
_Asclèpias speciòsa_
=Pink
Spring, summer
West=]
A handsome plant, decorative in form and harmonious in coloring, with a
stout stem, from one to four feet tall, and light bluish-green leaves,
usually covered with white down. The flowers are sweet-scented, with
woolly pedicels, purplish-pink petals, and waxy, white "hoods," the
buds yellowish-pink. The cluster, about three inches across, sometimes
comprises as many as fifty flowers and is very beautiful in tone, being
a mass of delicately blended, warm, soft tints of pink, cream, and
purple. This grows in canyon bottoms and along streams.
[Illustration: Showy Milkweed--Asclepias speciosa.]
[Sidenote: =Pale Milkweed=
_Asclèpias eròsa_
=Greenish-white
Spring
California=]
This is three feet or more tall, fine-looking, though too pale, with
a stout, smooth, gray-green stem and gray-green leaves, mottled with
white and very stiff, the under side white-woolly, and flower-clusters
two and a half inches across, composed of numerous greenish-white
flowers, each half an inch long, their stalks covered with white wool.
[Sidenote: =Desert Milkweed=
_Asclèpias vestìta var. Mohavénsis_
=Yellow and pink
Spring
California=]
A foot and a half tall, with very fragrant flowers, and very woolly all
over, especially the upper leaves, stems and buds, which are thick with
long white wool. The buds are pinkish-purple and the flowers have dull
pink petals and cream-colored hoods, becoming yellow, and form clusters
over two inches across. This grows in the Mohave Desert and the effect
is harmonious, but not so handsome as the last.
The genus Gomphocarpus is distinguished from Asclepias by the absence
of horns or crests in the hoods.
[Sidenote: =Purple Milkweed=
_Gomphocàrpus cordifòlius (Asclepias)_
=Purple and yellow
Summer
Oreg., Cal.=]
A handsome plant, smooth all over and more or less tinged with purple,
with a stout, purple stem, from one and a half to three feet tall, with
rubbery, dull, light bluish-green leaves. The flowers are scentless,
with purplish sepals, maroon or purple petals, and yellowish or pinkish
hoods, and form a very loose graceful cluster, over three inches
across, dark in color and contrasting well with the foliage. This is
common in Yosemite and elsewhere in California, at moderate altitudes.
The genus Asclepiodora, of the southern part of North America,
resembles Asclepias, but the flowers are larger, the petals not turned
back, the hoods flatter, with crests instead of horns; leaves mainly
alternate; corolla wheel-shaped; petals spreading; hoods oblong, blunt,
spreading and curving upward, crested inside; five tiny appendages
alternating with the anthers and forming an inner crown around the
stigma. The name is from the Greek, meaning the gift of Æsculapius.
[Illustration: Pale Milkweed--Asclepias erosa.