Butterfly weed (Asciepias tuberosa) is a flower loved by butterflies and caterpillars. The reason- it produces and abundance of nectar- just what butterflies thrive on. Most are bright orange and can vary from yellow to red. You will find it listed in the milkweed family, but unlike other members of the milkweed family, the sap of this plant is not milky white. You find it in open fields, roadsides, thickets, or railroad banks. We have successfully planted it, but it is very difficult to do. The taproots go very deep, and you must dig up the entire root system in order for it to survive.
After the flowers bloom, the seed pods form. They are four inches long and canoe-shaped. When
they open you find what appears to be cotton. The cottony threads are attached to seeds. The cottony material helps disperse the seeds when the wind blows.
Native Americans chewed the tough root for treatment of pleurisy and other pulmonary conditions such as pneumonia and whooping cough. You may hear it called by its common name, "Pleurisy Root". It was also powdered and mixed into a paste for sores. Beware, it is poisonous if taken in large doses.
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