With all the “buzz” about bees and butterflies, the Perennial Plant Association is celebrating a plant known for its ability to support birds and insects, including a beloved North American native butterfly. The association has just announced Asclepias tuberosa as its 2017 Perennial Plant of the Year.
Commonly known as butterfly weed, this long-lived and striking perennial is native to much of the continental United States, along with Canadian provinces Ontario and Quebec.
“With vibrant orange, red, and yellow flowers that seem to jump out at you, butterfly weed is a great addition to a sunny garden with average to dry soils,” says University of Illinois Extension educator Martha Smith. “As the common name suggests, these plants are butterfly magnets. They also have a medicinal history as a treatment for pleurisy, a common ailment in early colonial times, causing wheezing, coughing and great pain due to the inflammation of the pleura around the lungs. Asclepias tuberosa reportedly was so effective in treating this ailment it earned the common name pleurisy root.”
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