swallow-wort

plural swallow-worts · alternative swallowwort · alternative swallow wort

1. A plant of any of several species of plants whose parts are traditionally fancied as resembling a swallow's tail:
   1. countableuncountableThe plants of the genus Vincetoxicum, especially Vincetoxicum nigrum (syn. Cynanchum nigrum, black swallow-wort) or (Vincetoxicum hirundinaria (syn. Cynanchum vincetoxicum, white swallowwort).
   2. countableuncountableThe plants of the genus Cynanchum.
   3. countableuncountableChelidonium majus (greater celandine).
   4. countableuncountablePattalias palustris (syn. Seutera angustifolia, Gulf Coast swallow wort).
   5. countableuncountableorange swallow-wort (Asclepias tuberosa)
   6. countableuncountablesilky swallow-wort (Asclepias syriaca
   7. countableuncountableCalotropis spp. (giant milkweed).

      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.

      1918, James George Frazer, Folk-Lore In The Old Testament, volume 1, page 527

   8. countableuncountableEuphorbia maculata (spotted spurge).