Genus of chiefly North American perennial herbs silkweed

• Milkweed

Wikipedia Word definitions in Wikipedia
Asclepias L. (1753), the milkweeds , is an American genus of herbaceous perennial , dicotyledonous plants that contains over 140 known species. It previously belonged to the family Asclepiadaceae, but this is now classified as the subfamily Asclepiadoideae ...

The Collaborative International Dictionary Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Asclepias \As*cle"pi*as\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ?, named from Asclepios or Aesculapius.] (Bot.) A genus of plants including the milkweed, swallowwort, and some other species having medicinal properties. Asclepias butterfly (Zo["o]l.), a large, handsome, red and ...