# What is this?



## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Each one is a plant unto itself and they are everywhere. Some have milky substance in stems; some have only clear liquid. (I do know it is not poke salet.


----------



## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

Looks like milkweed to me. There are a number of species other than the "common" milkweed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepias

You can watch it for the flowers and then be better able to ID it.


----------



## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

WOW milkweed? I actually got some seeds and tried to grow some of that awhile back, though it never came up. Maybe the seeds got blown around! Thanks offthegrid, I'll watch for flowers and do some reading.


----------



## Ravenlost (Jul 20, 2004)

Looks like butterfly weed, which is a member of the milkweed family. If it has orange blooms then you'll know. I love butterfly weed.


----------



## tallpines (Apr 9, 2003)

Ravenlost said:


> Looks like butterfly weed, which is a member of the milkweed family. If it has orange blooms then you'll know. I love butterfly weed.


I have a "vanilla" butterfly weed.
The monarchs have laid eggs on it that developed into ugly catapillers to beautiful crystallis' to new butterflys.

I think you have the common milkweed.
The butterfly's like it!

The butterfly weed I've seen, both orange and vanilla colored blossom, have had a similar but slightly thinner leaf.


----------



## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

This edible? If so, what part(s) and how would one prepare it?


----------



## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

An edible plant person suggested you can dip the blossoms in batter and make fritters from them, or pickle them, if I remember correctly. With only a few plants it's not worth it, but when your fields are full of them you might try it.


----------



## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Seems I recall someone saying milkweed "stems" could be cooked like asparagus....cannot find that post though and don't trust my memory.


----------



## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

From Petersons Edible Wild Plants:

Common Milkweed
Use: Asparagus, cooked green, cooked vegetables, fritters.

The milky juice of the broken stems and leaves is bitter and mildly toxic. Fortunately, both of these properties are dispelled upon boiling, and Milkweed becomes one of the better wild vegetables.

Cover the young shoots, up to 6 inches, with boiling water and cook for 15 minutes, using several changes of water. The first few changes should be fairly rapid with just over a minute between each change. Be sure to use boiling water when making each change, as covering the plants with cold water and bringing them up to a boil tends to fix their bitter flavor. The tender young top leaves, flower buds, and small hard young pods are all prepared in much the same way as the shoots. 

The flowers can be dipped into boiling water for 1 minute, covered with batter and fried to make fritters.

Caution: do not confuse young shoots with those of dogbanes or butterfly weed. Common Milkweed shoots downy-hairy, with milky sap; dogbanes hairless; butterfly weed lacks milky sap.


----------



## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

motdaugrnds said:


> Seems I recall someone saying milkweed "stems" could be cooked like asparagus....cannot find that post though and don't trust my memory.


That was me. You can also cook the flowers, best before they bloom, and the young seed pods.


----------



## CarolynRenee (Jan 30, 2008)

I DON'T think the picture is of Hemp Dogbane, but wanted to put that out there since it does sorta look like milkweed but is poison.


----------



## ar_wildflower (Jan 2, 2010)

I had the same thing happen this year. A couple of years ago i gathered milk weed seeds and spread them in a side yard. Nothing grew. Last week I saw a milk weed plant growing all on it's own about 30 ft from where i spread the seed. Very joyous find!


----------



## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Wildflower that is what happened here. A few years back I planted some milkweed and nothing came up. This year I see this plant all over the garden. Am thinking the seeds must have "flown"...possible?


----------



## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

I wouldn't be happy if my neighbor "planted" milkweed! It is such an invasive weed in pastures and fields. Our sheep farmer neighbor planted "hybrid thistle" for his sheep. It wasn't supposed to seed out and spread. Now, all of us across the street from him are battling a major thistle invasion. Its terrible. 
We have hemp dogbane around here and it looks a lot like common milkweed, is just as invasive, and has the milky sap. We had a horse who was sensitive to it and would get sores on his face from grazing near it. We made the effort to go out in the pasture every year, and hand pull hundreds of the plants. We've finally got a handle on it now.


----------

