asclepias syriaca L.

Milkweed Medicine Common milkweed has a long history of use
as a medicinal plant.
Iroquois took an infusion of milkweed leaves for stomach medicine.

....the war economy had started and the United States was building ships and tanks to send to Europe to fight the Germans.  All kind of things went on.  One of the things I remember doing is that we picked milk weed pods to use in the making of life vests.  The pods as they ripened  were full of those little silky seeds and we would gather those and they would take them and dry them out and then use that materials in the life vests.  We spent days and days and days gathering sackfuls of those pods to donate to the cause of the war.  And they would be shipped to places where they were making these life vests.  The sewing plant in Manti was a parachute plant at that time.  They made parachutes for the Air Forces to use in both their paratrooper and for the men on the planes in case it was shot down. 

Roland Beck
Enlisted - March 1945

SOURCE(S)
All Creatures
Easy Wildflowers
Medicinal plants in Your Backyard
Veterinary Medicine Library
Vitality Magazine
WikiPedia

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