Endangered Weeds

Swan Plant aka Milkweed

Greenfinger and Bluetooth walk around the garden.

Weeds. Milkweed. See? Break the stem and milk comes out.

You’ve got another kind of milkweed over here. Swan plants.

That’s for the butterflies.

Swan plant is also called milkweed. Asclepias fruiticosa. There’s heaps of plants in the Asclepias genus.

Asclepias?

After the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius.

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Voice-over

They name WEEDS after me? 
I'm HONORED.

“Weed” is a subjective expression. Implying something of an invasive nature.

Something invasive can scarcely be called “endangered.”

Is “endangered weed” thus an oxymoron?

To developers unsympathetic to biodiversity, any plant could be a weed.

I propose a new new category to counter the depredations of human commerce.

“Endangered weeds.”

Milkweeds, a big family, 140 described. Noted for nectar, butterfly gardening, flowers. They have a surprising number of human uses too: medicinal, insulation, sweetening, cords, rubber.

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