Talk:Asclepias

A note

As a someone with a BSc Polymer Science and Technology, I'd suggest changing the word caoutchouc, in the artilce to latex. Caoutchouc is one of a group of related Romance words (French, Spanish, Italian etc)that emulate the words used by the inhabitants of south/Latin America for natural rubber. (The Brits christened it rubber because it can rub things out.) The sap of the plant is an emulsion of rubbery particles in water. You have to break the emulsion to precipitate out the rubbery particles as the first step to making rubber which can then be vulcanised.

You can read all about the process if you get hold of a copy of this book []

all the best Biofuelsimon (talk) 09:58, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Good point. Fixed.--Curtis Clark (talk) 13:57, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

References

Photo

I have a couple of milkweed photos. They may be useful, but I don't know the species of milkweed. These photos were taken along the Escalante River, Utah, about four miles downstream of the Hwy 12 bridge.

A milkweed.

File:R27182818 milkweed img 0314.jpg

Another milkweed.

They look like showy milkweed (A. speciosa) to me.

--Belgrano 15:12, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, this is Asclepias speciosa.

--ButterflyEncounters 1 July 2007

Species better in a list

I don't know if anyone is still working on this, but the selected species would be better treated in a new article List of Asclepias species. Anyone interested? Djlayton4 | talk | contribs 02:52, October 15, 2015

Actually, milkweed is quite edible. The toxic substance is water-soluble so that if you boil it with frequent changes of water, the toxicity is lost and you are left with an excellent cooked vegetable. I enjoyed milkweed pods many times in my youth (though I do recall being ill once when perhaps the water hadn't been changed enough). I believe we learned of it from a book by Euell Gibbons and I am certain that it is regularly covered in books on edible wild plants. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.60.112.96 (talk) 07:07, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Like the photos with the list of species

I'd like to thank whoever went to the trouble to put in photos for each of the species in the list. I wish they were all done that way. That is SO helpful for people who don't know any of the species and are trying to identify a particular one. It saves a LOT of time going to each one to see what it looks like.

Now I wonder if there's a template for doing the species list that way. It would be great to encourage writers to do that. Wcutler (talk) 06:35, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

they're also edible (if properly prepared)

The article should mention this fact. My mother used to cook them occasionally when I was a child and they were quite good. Euell Gibbons's "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" has a chapter on milkweed. The secret is to boil them with frequent changes of water (which gets rid of the toxicity). A Google search for "edible plants milkweed" had numerous hits (I tried including one link as a sample but it was blocked as spam). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.217.149.46 (talk) 17:20, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Eastern American milkweed

There is a plant commonly called "milkweed" in the Eastern US. It is white, which is one of the reasons it was called "milkweed." None of the pictures seem to show this. Nor does a google search seem to reveal what has to be the most common variety in the Eastern US. Student7 (talk) 23:44, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Milkweed distribution and disambiguation

I've tried to do some disambig on milkweeds, which are used for quite a few things. From what I can see it looks like Asclepias is an American-only genus, but I can't find any definite information. My suspicion is that 'milkweed' refers to Asclepias in North America but to Sonchus oleraceus or Euphorbia peplus in Europe. In any case, each page should have "other uses" notes to clarify that these are not the only meanings for that name, but I suggest that milkweed should not be a redirect at all and only point to the disambig page; there's no obvious reason for one usage to take priority. If nobody has any good arguments I'll try and remember to move this page next time I visit. EDIT: logged out while writing the message... -- Shimmin Beg (talk) 16:22, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

Insulative properties

Milkweed is less insulative, has less loft, less compressability, is lumpier, etc... than just about every material tested here. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=textiles_facpub — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rgambord (talk • contribs) 14:27, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Incorrect language couplings

This article in English about a plant species named Asclepias (redirected from Schizonotus) is coupled to articles in Cebuano, Dutch (Nederlands), and Winaray that are about an animal species called Schizonotus. The remainder of the coupled articles seems to be dealing with plants.

I call for creating and/or maintaining and/or repairing of correct language couplings. The corresponding article in Dutch seems to be on https://nl.wiki.x.io/wiki/Zijdeplant . Thanks!Redav (talk) 01:17, 11 September 2013 (UTC)

Those links have been removed by editor Wikiklaas. I've created a page Schizonotus (disambiguation), and hope that someone with specialist knowledge will turn Schizonotus into a page about the wasp genus, changing it from its current status as a redirect to the disambiguation page. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 17:22, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Milk Plant NOT Milkweed

Must end calling this beautiful plant a weed. The word weed is bad. For some plants are beautiful but some get a curse of weeds. The Monarch Butterfly loves this beautiful plant. Monarch butterflies are in danger. I was sad I see no milk plants anymore and then I saw some growing in a park out of mulch and the park service it appeared destroyed them thinking "WEED". Soldiors made the milk plant rare because they collected seed pods and made parachutes from the silky insides. And the Monarch Butterfly suffered as a result. Say prayers to YEHOVAH and YESHUWA that the milk plant returns and stop referring to this beautiful plant as a "WEED". Should say on the page "Milk Plant" not "Milk Weed". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:A000:DFC0:5B:C41:4A28:38FC:794F (talk) 15:27, 24 May 2015 (UTC)

"since 2015"?

"Uses" says that an "entire industry" has developed around milkweed since 2015. Isn't May 2016 a little soon to be saying this? Vicki Rosenzweig (talk) 01:51, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

The previous paragraph says commercial growing started in 2012: I've merged the paragraphs. Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:14, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

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Milkweed as a host for OE parasites

Milkweed is a host for the parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, which is dangerous to monarch butterflies. The tropical version, Asclepias curassavica, is an even more welcoming host for this parasite because of its perennial nature. See this page: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/01/plan-save-monarch-butterflies-backfires. I'm not sure if this information fits in the article, but I am putting it here on the talk page. Tea and crumpets (talk) 23:55, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

It's not that simple. Asclepias curassavica (not the only tropical milkweed, by the way — another is nivea), has not only high cardenolide content, its cardenolides are sequested by larvae unusually effectively, leaving the adult butterflies more protected from bird predation. Also, it is a heavy nectar producer (unlike some Asclepias) and its cardenolides can reduce the virulence of OE. Research has showed that for Asclepias linaria, for example. Research has found that non-migrating monarch populations, like in Hawaii, have much higher OE infection rates but are also much more resistant to the more virulent OE they have in their areas. Part of that resistance may be more down to the food plants, as high-cardenolide plants like Calotropis and A. curassavica are common in places like Hawaii. Florida also has higher-cardenolide species like humistrata, as compared with freezing more northern locations. People should remember the problem of birds eating monarchs when thinking about curassavica. Many species that are praised for monarch food are extremely poor sources of cardenolides, like A. fascicularis, A. tuberosa, and A. incarnata (not A. incarnata pulchra, which sometimes has high cardenolides and sometimes doesn't — it's a weird one). Also, monarchs are likely more benefitted by having any non-chemical milkweed food plant versus none, since their habitat keeps being consumed by development and the chemical industry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.77.192.184 (talk) 23:48, 9 February 2020 (UTC)

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Orphaned references in Asclepias

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Asclepias's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "Abugattas":

• From Butterfly gardening: Abugattas, Alonzo (2017-01-03). "Monarch Way Stations". Capital Naturalist. Archived from the original on 2017-06-05. Retrieved 2017-06-05 – via Blogger.
• From Monarch butterfly: Abugattas, Alonzo (3 January 2017). "Monarch Way Stations". Capital Naturalist. Archived from the original on 5 June 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2017 – via Blogger.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 08:24, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

This article makes statements/claims about Asclepias as a genera that should only be made about species

This article makes statements/claims about Asclepias as a genera that should only be made about species. For example:

" Milkweed is toxic and may cause death when animals consume large quantities of the plant. Milkweed also causes mild dermatitis in some who come in contact with it. Nonetheless, it can be made edible if properly processed."

While some species may be toxic, Asclepias syriaca is non-toxic and is regularly consumed by people, and is not required to be "properly processed" .

References

Asclepias tuberosa doesn't have "named for their latex" mentioned too! Jidanni (talk) 20:40, 11 July 2023 (UTC)