Milkweed has sap that’s poison, but not to monarch
butterflies...
Milkweed has sap that’s poison, but not to monarch
butterflies whose larvae feed on the leaves so much that the amount of toxin
they contain make them unappetizing to bugs and birds who might otherwise want
to eat them. For humans, it’s said the sap makes warts go away. You can eat
milkweed if you want. Boil it. It might be bitter. (But Dogbane is milkweed’s
poisonous look-alike; take care.) Chew the roots to rid yourself of dysentery.
Coughs, typhus fever, and asthma have been treated with infusions of milkweed
roots and leaves. I am no evangelist for natural remedies. Some facts just feel
good to know.
The
snow-white rabbitsoft silk has been used to stuff quilts and pillows, and it
makes me think strange, good dreams would happen with a head on a pillow stuffed
such. Dreams about being lifted off the surface of the earth and carried on the
currents of the air, maybe, or finding yourself living inside a tree. Along the
Charles River yesterday afternoon, tall milkweed stalked along the banks with
empty husks, seeds with their feather-light fur long gone. The interiors of the
pods were smooth and cracked like animal hide and now, when it is spring in name alone, I wondered when things would green again, and when the milk sap would start to flow.
