Colorado Wild Plants and Fungi
by DaySounds © 2013-17




Milkweed, Showy (Asclepias speciosa)

Its sap is whitish (milky). It is a diuretic. Used externally, as a poultice, it can help
bruises and minor wounds heal faster. It is said that the sap applied daily on a
wart over a 2-4 week period helps to remove it. It can be found in dry places and
next to water as well.

Warning: even though some people consume it internally after boiling it, DaySounds
discourages its use as food/infusion. It can create serious heart problems, give place to
a miscarriage, and/or make breast-feeding babies sick.

Flower Description, partially provided by Cathy Railton, director of the Starsmore Nature
Discovery Center in Colorado Springs, CO., USA: The Milkweed flower is composed of five
green small sepals (hidden under the petals), and 5 pink petals (folded down) below a
crown/corona of 5 pink petal-like (petaloid), hood-like appendages, which are the expansions
of the fused filaments. Each hood has a light-pink horn (appendage) curving upward from
inside, arching over the center of the flower, toward the stigma. The 5 anthers are attached
to the sides of the stigma. The pollen is kept within waxy sacks in the pollinarium--which
sometimes trap the pollinator or its legs for good.

                                     

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Estes Park, CO 80517
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