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Size: 30-60 cm (1-2 ft.).
Leaves/Flowers: Unlike most milkweeds this one has alternate leaves and do not exude a white latex sap as other milkweeds do when broken off. The leaves are lance-shaped to pointed, up to 15 cm (6 in.) long, and covered with soft hairs.
Flowers bloom from July to September. They are red-orange with several flower stalks borne in a broad umbel, an umbrella shaped flower arrangement.
Habitat: Dry-moist prairie.
Range: New England to Minnesota and south to Arizona, Texas and Florida.
Use: The Mesquakie (Fox) drank the root tea to kill parasites and to cause vomiting. Several Native American groups used the roots, pounded, dried, or boiled, to relieve coughs, chest pains or pleurisy.
Prior to the knowledge of disease
causing bacteria and virus, early medicine, developed by many
groups of people, used an emetic purge, drinking something to
cause vomiting, as a cure for diseases.