Common Milkweed has a large purple/pink flower in the summer that smells divine! This plant is the Monarch butterfly’s favorite host plant for their caterpillars. If you carefully look on the backs of the milkweed leaves in mid summer you may see little yellow/orange eggs or very small caterpillars (Monarchs go through about 4 full life cycles here in Upstate NY between July and October before they migrate back to California & Mexico).
Milkweed is edible, the shoots in early Spring can be cooked and eaten like asparagus, the flowers make great fritters and the seeds with their silk can be used in casseroles and have a cheese like flavor and consistency.
Milkweed fibers can be used to make rope and the milkweed sap (latex based) can be used topically to get rid of warts.
As always when using plants for food and medicine, do your research!