{"id":45,"date":"2013-11-13T19:00:52","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T19:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vnps.dreamhosters.com\/princewilliamwildflowersociety\/?page_id=45"},"modified":"2020-10-21T16:30:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T20:30:19","slug":"there-and-back-again-a-short-taxonomic-history-of-milkweed","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/princewilliamwildflowersociety\/botanizing-with-marion\/there-and-back-again-a-short-taxonomic-history-of-milkweed\/","title":{"rendered":"There and Back Again: A Short Taxonomic History of Milkweed"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Marion Blois Lobstein<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Botany Chair, Prince William Wildflower Society (Article adapted from articles published in PWWS\u2019s\u00a0Wild News<\/em>); Professor Emeritus, Northern Virginia Community College<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Most of the 200 species ofAsclepias\u00a0<\/em>are native to the New World.\u00a0The history of taxonomy or scientific names and classification of this interesting group of plants is complicated and convoluted.\u00a0Dioscorides, the Greek physician who wrote hisMateria Medica<\/em>\u00a0in the first century A.D., first used\u00a0Asclepias,<\/em>but he was describing a plant other than milkweed, which does not grow in Europe.\u00a0Possibly he was describing European dogbane (Vincetoxicum hirundinarie<\/em>) which is an Apocynum species.\u00a0True milkweed orAsclepias<\/em>\u00a0species were first collected and sent to Europe by French and English explorers in the 1500s and 1600s.\u00a0 In 1585, John White, the English artist who was part of the ill-fated Roanoke Lost Colony, illustrated\u00a0Asclepias syriaca<\/em>.\u00a0The herbalist Gerarde included a description and illustration of Indian swallowwort that may have been a dogbane, but by the 1633 the illustration was that of\u00a0Asclepias syriaca\u00a0<\/em>that was also call\u00a0Apocynum syriacum<\/em>.\u00a0Around 1620, Louis Hebert, a French colonist and pharmacist in New France (Eastern Canada) sent seeds ofAsclepias syriacum<\/em>\u00a0to Paris to investigate its medicinal properties.\u00a0By 1635, Philip Cornut, a doctor and botanist in New France, described both\u00a0Asclepias syriaca<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Asclepias incarnada<\/em>\u00a0in\u00a0Canadensium plantarum historia.\u00a0<\/em>He used the genus\u00a0Apocynum<\/em>\u00a0for both species, but was confused about the identification\u00a0Asclepias syriaca,<\/em>\u00a0and used the name syriacum referring to a dogbane for the Mid-East.\u00a0Linnaeus in 1753 used the genusAsclepias\u00a0<\/em>and still used the species epitaph\u00a0syriaca<\/em>.\u00a0Linnaeus is thought to have used a specimen of this species collected by John Clayton and sent to Gronovius,\u00a0who shared the specimen with Linnaeus.\u00a0In the\u00a0Flora Virginica\u00a0<\/em>(2nd\u00a0ed.,1762), the use of both\u00a0Asclepias<\/em>and\u00a0Apocynum\u00a0<\/em>epitaphs seem to be linked closely together.<\/p>\n

Since many of the characteristics of\u00a0Apocynum<\/em>\u00a0species are similar to those of\u00a0Asclepias<\/em>species, it is easy to see why the two genera were often confused, and the two were in the same family by the end of the 1700s.\u00a0 Species of both genera usually have milky sap with latex and opposite leaves (Butterfly-weed [Asclepias tuberosa<\/em>] is an exception to both of these characters) as well as similar flower structure in five sepals, five petals, two carpels fused at the top by with the two ovaries free, and similar fruits-follicles or pods.\u00a0 Only the Asclepias species (as well as other genera in formerly in the Asclepidaceae), however, have the stigma of the pistil and stamens forming the gynostegium\u2014described in the general article on butterfly-weed and other milkweeds in our area\u2014and the pollen in pollinia. There are gradations of the pollina formation in some members of the former narrowly defined Apocynaceae.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Michel Adanson in 1763 proposed \u201cApocyna\u201d as a family that included Apocynum and Asclepias. The accepted family name of Apocynaceae was based on A.L. de Jussieu\u2019s \u201cApocineae\u201d in 1789.\u00a0 In 1810, however, Robert Brown split Apocynaceae into two families, Asclepiadaceae and Apocynaceae, based on whether or not the pollen is packaged in pollina (only in Asclepiadaceae).\u00a0 During the 1800s, there were various treatments of these two families.\u00a0In the 1990s and 2000s, the molecular investigation of the DNA of species in these two families has led to combining the two families once again into the\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Apocynaceae.\u00a0Members of the former Asclepidaceae are now in the subfamily Asclepiadoideae.\u00a0It seems molecular data has brought us full circle in re-combining these two families into Apocynaceae.<\/p>\n

Some interesting websites dealing with taxonomic change in Apocynaceae and former Asclepidaveae:<\/p>\n

\u201cApocynaceae: Brown and now,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by Mary Endress, Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust<\/p>\n

\u201cThe history and use of milkweed (Asclepias Syriaca L<\/em>.)<\/a>,\u201d by Erika E. Gaertner, inEconomic Botany<\/em>\u00a0(April\/June 1979: 33, no. 2): pp 119-123.<\/p>\n

\u201cNomenclature and Iconography of Common Milkweed<\/a>,\u201d by Jules Janick and Winthrop B. Phippen, in\u00a0Chronica Horticulturae<\/em>, 53, no. 2 (2013)<\/p>\n

[References:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe history and use of milkweed (Asclepias Syriaca L.),\u201d<\/em>\u00a0by Erika E. Gaertner, in\u00a0Economic Botany\u00a0<\/em>33, no. 2 (April\/June 1979), 119-123; \u00a0\u201cNomenclature and Iconography of Common Milkweed,\u201d by Jules Janick and Winthrop B. Phippen, in\u00a0Chronica Horticulturae<\/em>, 53, no. 2 (2013).]<\/p>\n

\u00a0Selected glossary of botanical terms<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Source:<\/em>\u00a0Alan S. Weakley, J. Christopher Ludwig, and John F. Townsend. Bland Crowder, ed.\u00a0Flora of Virginia. (<\/em>Fort Worth: BRIT Press, 2012)]<\/p>\n

Androecium \u00a0<\/strong>Collectively, the stamens of a flower.<\/p>\n

Anther<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The expanded, apical, pollen-bearing portion of the stamen, comprising one or, usually, two pollen sacs and a connecting layer.<\/p>\n

Calyx\u00a0<\/strong>(plural\u00a0calyxes<\/strong>) \u00a0The outer whorl of the perianth; collectively, all the sepals of a flower.<\/p>\n

Carpel<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0A unit of the gynoecium with a simple pistil formed from on emodified leaf, or that part of a compound pistil formed from one modified leaf; megasporophyll.<\/p>\n

Corolla<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Collectively, all the petals of a flower, whether distinct or connate; the inner whorl of a perianth.<\/p>\n

Corona<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0A set of petal-like or crown-like structures between the corolla and the androecium in some flowers, derived by modification of the corolla or androecium.<\/p>\n

Gynostemium \u00a0<\/strong>A compound structure resulting from the union of stamens and pistil.<\/p>\n

Perianth<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Collectively, the calyx and corolla of a flower, especially when they are similar in appearance.<\/p>\n

Pollinium (<\/strong>plural\u00a0pollinia)<\/strong>\u00a0I n many Orchidaceae and Asclepiadaceae, a coherent cluster of many waxy pollen grains, transported as a unit during pollination.<\/p>\n

Sepal<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0A segment of a calyx.<\/p>\n

Stigma<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The part of a pistil adapted for the reception of pollen.<\/p>\n

[Images:\u00a0 Milkweed flower structure accessed at \u201cA NeoTropical Savanna,\u201d by Mary Farmer,\u00a0http:\/\/ntsavanna.com\/the-tropical-milkweed\/; Asclepias syriaca<\/em>, Deanna LaValle High]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Marion Blois Lobstein Botany Chair, Prince William Wildflower Society (Article adapted from articles published in PWWS\u2019s\u00a0Wild News); Professor Emeritus, Northern Virginia Community College Most of the 200 species ofAsclepias\u00a0are native to the New World.\u00a0The history of taxonomy or scientific names and classification of this interesting group of plants is complicated and convoluted.\u00a0Dioscorides, the Greek…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":12,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"tpl-sidebar.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-45","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThere and Back Again: A Short Taxonomic History of Milkweed - Prince William Wildflower Society<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/princewilliamwildflowersociety\/botanizing-with-marion\/there-and-back-again-a-short-taxonomic-history-of-milkweed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There and Back Again: A Short Taxonomic History of Milkweed - Prince William Wildflower Society\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Marion Blois Lobstein Botany Chair, Prince William Wildflower Society (Article adapted from articles published in PWWS\u2019s\u00a0Wild News); 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