white milkweed: tall herb with leafless white waxy stems and whitish starlike flowers; southwestern United States
milkweed: any of numerous plants of the genus Asclepias having milky juice and pods that split open releasing seeds with downy tufts
barbary coast: a part of a city that is notorious for gambling dens and brothels and saloons and riotous night life (especially the waterfront of San Francisco after the gold rush of 1849)