Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Gentianales > Apocynaceae > Asclepias > Asclepias quadrifolia

Asclepias quadrifolia (fourleaf milkweed)

Synonyms: Asclepias quadrifolia var. lanceolata; Asclepias quadrifolia var. oppositifolia; Asclepias vanilla

Wikipedia Abstract

Asclepias quadrifolia is a species of milkweed commonly called fourleaf milkweed or whorled milkweed. The plant occurs in the eastern United States and Canada.
View Wikipedia Record: Asclepias quadrifolia

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-Low
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [2]  Although no specific reports have been seen for this species, many, if not all, members of this genus contain toxic resinoids, alkaloids and cardiac glycosides; They are usually avoided by grazing animals;
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Bees, Insects, Lepidoptera, Lepidoptera
Scent [2]  The small, pale-lilac flowers are sweetly scented.
Structure [3]  Herb
Usage [2]  The following reports refer to other members of this genus and are possibly also appropriate for this species; A good quality fibre is obtained from the bark, used in making twine, cloth, paper etc; It is of poor quality in wet seasons; It is easily harvested in late autumn after the plant has died down by simply pulling the fibres off the dried stems; The seed floss is used to stuff pillows etc or is mixed with other fibres to make cloth; It is a Kapok substitute, used in Life Jackets or as a stuffing material; Very water repellent, it can yield up to 550 kilos per hectare; The floss has also been used to mop up oil spills at sea. Candlewicks can be made from the seed floss; Rubber can be made from latex contained in the leaves and the stems; It is found mainly in the leaves and is destroyed by frost; Yields are higher on dry soils; Pods contain an oil and a wax which are of potential importance. The seed contains up to 20% of an edible semi-drying oil; It is also used in making liquid soap;
Height [2]  20 inches (0.5 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Asclepias quadrifolia

Protected Areas

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0