Butterfly Milkweed

from wilkipedia:

asclepias tuberosa, common names: butterfly weed, canada root, chigger flower, fluxroot, indian paintbrush, indian posy, orange milkweed, orange swallow-wort, pleurisy root, silky swallow-wort, tuber root, yellow milkweed, white-root, windroot

is a species of milkweed native to eastern north america. it is a perennial plant growing to 0.6-2 m (1 -2 feet) tall, with clustered orange or yellow flowers from early summer to early fall. the leaves are spirally arranged, lanceolate, 5-12 cm long and 2-3 cm broad.

this plant favors dry, sand or gravel soil, but has also been reported on stream margins. it requires full sun.

the common name comes from the butterflies that are attracted to the plant by its color and its copious production of nectar. butterfly weed is also the larval food plant of the queen and monarch butterflies.

extracts in herbalism and by native americans were used as an expectorant for wet coughs and other pulmonary ailments.