Milkweed

click on pic to enlarge

Asclepias Syriaca.  There are thirteen milkweed varieties found in Wisconsin and this stuff grows all over the place.  Along the driveway, in the flower beds, in the native planting and along the trails.  It is ubiquitous.

There are no healing qualities to be ascribed to this plan - if you taste it your heart will do flip-flops and you'll get hot-flashes.  That is because the plant contains cardiac glycosides.

In a symbiotic twist the Monarch butterfly lays its eggs on this plant and the caterpillar dines-upon it.  As a result the caterpillar becomes toxic and the birds leave it alone.