Well, I found it, it is a variety of milkweed that we have up here. It is the Asclepias syriaca L. Seemed to coincidental that I'd remember that name, but the pictures you had didn't look exactly like our version.
Oh, I found it in a book called "The Magic and Medicine of Plants" which I recommend highly.
It has a picture and an illustration of each plant, a description of how it was used in the past and current knowledge on plant. In addition to its habitat, range, identification info, and its uses.
It is very interesting, and because of the exactitude of descriptions, you can't go wrong when you find the plant in the field - this to the great chagrin of my Hubby who groans whenever I eat some plant I've just found in a field or in the woods (A great believer in grocery stores, Hubby is.)
