silkweedn.
Botany.
1. U.S. = milkweed n. 5a.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Asclepiadaceae (milk-weed and allies) > [noun]
swallowwort1548
Asclepias1578
silken cicely1597
silkweed1784
tame-poison1785
milkweed1814
green milkweed1829
Hoodia1830
asclepiad1859
poke milkweed1890
1784 Mem. Amer. Acad. I. 424 The seeds are contained in large pods, and are crowned with white down,..resembling silk, which has occasioned the name of Silk~weed.
1814 J. Bigelow Florula Bostoniensis 62 Asclepias Syriaca, Common Silk weed or Milk weed,..is used as a substitute for feathers, fur, cotton, &c.
1845 A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. ii. 309 A. phytolaccoides... Poke-leaved Silkweed.
1845 A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. ii. 309 A. Syriaca... Syrian or Common Silkweed.
1857 A. Gray First Lessons Bot. (1866) 135 A coma, or tuft of long and soft hairs, such as we find in the Milkweed or Silkweed.
1940 J. Stuart Trees of Heaven 48 There is the musty smell of ironweeds, milkweeds, silkweeds,..and bull grass on the lazy wind.
2. A plant of the genus Conferva.
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the world > plants > particular plants > algae > [noun] > silkweeds
crow-silk1721
conferva1758
moor-ball1777
Oscillatoria1828
water flannel1843
conferval1850
confervoid1855
silkweed1857
duck-mud1884
1857 A. Henfrey Elem. Course Bot. 450 Confervoideæ, Silk-weeds... Plants..of bright green, or more rarely (often temporarily) red colour.
1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 508/2 This is seen in Confervæ, such as the green matter often seen in ponds, and called silk-weed.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1910; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1784