Milkweed

Milkweed (Asclepias spp.) is a wild plant that furnishes food and medicine but also toxins. The young shoots of Milkweed, when first coming up from the ground, can be eaten as an asparagus-like vegetable, and its flower buds can be tasted as a trail nibble. Later in the year, its cucumber-like fruits can be picked when small and pickled, and in the early winter one can come back to a withered milkweed and collect its stalk fibers to twine into a strong cordage. The namesake of this plant, the toxic white milky latex, has been used topically on warts and other growths. The roots of some species, such as Pleurisy root (Asclepias tuberosa), have been used as a medicine for such disparate conditions as edema and inflammation of the pleura.