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Asclepias syriaca

Perennial

HomePerennialAsclepias syriaca

Thickets, roadsides, dry fields and waste places.

Family: Asclepiadaceae
Height: 1 m / 4 ft
Sun, Semi-shade
Light, Medium Soil
Dry to Moist

Plant Rating

Edible Uses: 3 of 5
Medicinal Uses: 2 of 5
Other Uses: 3 of 5

Native Habitat

Common Milkweed, Silkweed, Milkweed Asclepias syriaca native habitat is Thickets, roadsides, dry fields and waste places.

Edible Uses

Unopened flower buds - cooked. They taste somewhat like peas. They are used like broccoli. Flowers and young flower buds - cooked. They have a mucilaginous texture and a pleasant flavour, they can be used as a flavouring and a thickener in soups etc. The flower clusters can be boiled down to make a sugary syrup. The flowers are harvested in the early morning with the dew still on them. When boiled up they make a brown sugar. Young shoots - cooked. An asparagus substitute. They should be used when less than 20cm tall. A slightly bitter taste. Tips of older shoots are cooked like spinach. Young seed pods, 3 - 4 cm long, cooked. They are very appetizing. Best used when about 2 - 4cm long and before the seed floss forms, on older pods remove any seed floss before cooking them. If picked at the right time, the pods resemble okra. The sprouted seeds can be eaten. An edible oil is obtained from the seed. The latex in the stems is a suitable replacement for chicle and can be made into a chewing gum. It is not really suitable for use in tyres. The latex is found mainly in the leaves and is destroyed by frost. Yields are higher on dry soils.

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