swallow-wort

See also: swallowwort

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From swallow +‎ wort. See celandine.

Noun

swallow-wort (countable and uncountable, plural swallow-worts)

  1. A plant of any of several species of plants whose parts resemble a swallow's tail:
    1. Plants of genus Vincetoxicum, especially Vincetoxicum nigrum (syn. Cynanchum nigrum, black swallow-wort) or (Vincetoxicum hirundinaria (syn. Cynanchum vincetoxicum, white swallowwort).
    2. Plants of genus Cynanchum
    3. Chelidonium majus (greater celandine).
    4. Pattalias palustris (syn. Seutera angustifolia, Gulf Coast swallow wort).
    5. In genus Asclepias (milkweed):
      1. orange swallow-wort (Asclepias tuberosa)
      2. silky swallow-wort (Asclepias syriaca
    6. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) Calotropis spp. (giant milkweed).
      • 1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 527:
        Among the Kunbis of the Central Provinces of India a bachelor who marries a widow must first be married to an ākra or swallow-wort (Calotropis gigantea), a very common plant with mauve or purple flowers, which grows on waste land.
    7. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) Euphorbia maculata (spotted spurge).

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