Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various plants of the genus Asclepias, having milky juice, usually opposite leaves, variously colored flowers grouped in umbels, and pods that split open to release seeds with downy tufts.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The tall blue lettuce, Lactuca spicata.
- noun A general name for plants of the genus Asclepias, somewhat especially for A. Cornuti, the most common American species: so called from their milky juice.
- noun A plant of the genus Euphorbia, especially E. corollata, the flowering or blooming spurge. See
Euphorbia . - noun In Great Britain: The sow-thistle, Sonchus oleraceus.
- noun The milk-parsley, Peucedanum palustre.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Bot.) Any plant of the genera Asclepias and Acerates, abounding in a milky juice, and having its seed attached to a long silky down; silkweed. The name is also applied to several other plants with a milky juice, as to several kinds of spurge. Its leaves are a favorite food source for the larvae of the monarch butterfly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of several
plants , of the genus Asclepias, that have a milkysap and havepods that split to release seeds with silky tufts. - noun A
monarch butterfly .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun annual Eurasian sow thistle with soft spiny leaves and rayed yellow flower heads
- noun any of numerous plants of the genus Asclepias having milky juice and pods that split open releasing seeds with downy tufts
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word milkweed.
Examples
-
Of course, some weeds, like milkweed, is not good for the goats so I have to be careful not to include them.
Farm Journal: A Developing Philosophy on Weeding Olga Bonfiglio 2010
-
Of course, some weeds, like milkweed, is not good for the goats so I have to be careful not to include them.
Archive 2010-08-01 Olga Bonfiglio 2010
-
Damian, milkweed is also brilliant for healing damaged livers.
-
During the summer these wonderful creatures go through several short generations each lasting only a few weeks scattered throughout the U.S. and southern Canada, wherever milkweed is available.
-
During the summer these wonderful creatures go through several short generations each lasting only a few weeks scattered throughout the U.S. and southern Canada, wherever milkweed is available.
-
Many scientists say that the cardenolides contained in milkweed are poisonous to most potential predators thus protecting the spectacularly colored monarchs.
-
Many scientists say that the cardenolides contained in milkweed are poisonous to most potential predators thus protecting the spectacularly colored monarchs.
-
Allied to the milkweed is another plant, the dogbane (_Apocynum_), which has a similar trick of entrapping its insect friends.
My Studio Neighbors William Hamilton Gibson 1873
-
For example, monarch caterpillars adore butterfly weed, often times called milkweed, members of the Asclepias family of plants.
The Seattle Times 2010
-
Monarch caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed, which is regularly killed by pesticides when wild lands are adapted for other uses.
The Albert Lea Tribune Staff 2010
bilby commented on the word milkweed
Used in cheap Dylan Thomas knock-offs.
December 30, 2023