butterfly weed

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Related to Yellow Milkweed: Yellow thistle, orange milkweed, Purple milkweed

butterfly weed

A North American milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) having showy clusters of usually bright orange flowers and a root that was formerly used in medicine. Also called pleurisy root.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

butterfly weed

(Plants) a North American asclepiadaceous plant, Asclepias tuberosa (or A. decumbens), having flat-topped clusters of bright orange flowers. Also called: orange milkweed or pleurisy root

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun

butterfly weed - erect perennial of eastern and southern United States having showy orange flowers

Asclepias tuberosa, chigger flower, chiggerflower, Indian paintbrush, orange milkweed, pleurisy root, tuber root

milkweed, silkweed - any of numerous plants of the genus Asclepias having milky juice and pods that split open releasing seeds with downy tufts

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On a silvery mushroom was spread the breakfast; little cakes of flower-dust lay on a broad green leaf, beside a crimson strawberry, which, with sugar from the violet, and cream from the yellow milkweed, made a fairy meal, and their drink was the dew from the flowers' bright leaves.