Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
Common Milkweed
This image from the 2004 season was taken when I came across an area in a meadow covered with milkweed. Seeing the plant's gossamer seeds triggered a memory from my childhood.
I was reminded that I had, along with many other school children during WWII, gathered milkweed pods as part of the war effort. It seems that they were a good substitute for the short supplies of kapok used in military "Mae West" flotation vests. ("Two bags will float a man!" was the slogan.)
My fellow students at Hawley Grammar School in Northampton, Massachusetts along with schoolchildren in 29 states, I've since learned, contributed 1,5000,000 pounds of milkweed to the effort in 1944. Lots of milkweed!
It was breezy enough that day in early autumn to waft many of these fluffy parachutes across the meadow, where they can, given the opportunity, start another colony of these perennial plants.
But, beyond this pretty way of dispersing its seeds, I discovered that Common Milkweed was of interest because of the unusual orange and black bugs residing there.
The colorful Milkweed Bug like the Monarch Butterfly and Dogbane Beetle, find a host and are dependant upon members of the Asclepias family for survival.
You'll notice that its orange and black color scheme is similar to that of the Monarch Butterfly.
Perhaps this is a warning to browsing birds: Along with the butterfly, they also share an immunity to the toxic compounds contained in the milky sap of the plant.
The buildup of the bitter toxins in the tissues of both species makes them less than a tasty meal for predators.
This year I was able to observe the spring flowering phase of the plant and found it just as interesting as the seed pods, and, I believe, worthy of some further consideration.
The common name is, of course, derived from the milky juice that is exuded when the the plant is injured.
The scientific name assigned by Linnaeus, is according to modern botany, partially incorrect. The prefix Asclepias (Greek god of healing and medicine) correctly alludes to the medicinal use of the genus, but because he supposedly thought the plant came from the Middle East, Linnaeus gave the plant the syriaca suffix.
Later, botanists determined that this plant, although related to members of the genus found in Syria and Palestine, did not originate there but is native to North America.
Colonists to this continent recognized the species and used the native plant in their traditional folk medicine as they had other plants of the Asclepias family in Europe. Some herbal-medicine guides still recommend its use in an effusion as an emetic and diuretic, and for the removal of warts through application of the sap directly to the skin.
What I had missed last year were the flowers that precede the seed pods.
I have enjoyed studying them this year, because they draw lots of insects, besides having a unique beauty themselves.
The plants are the subject of much attention by bees and other pollen gathers, so apparently the nectar and pollen do not contain the poison.
The blossoms displayed by the members of the Asclepias family are thick-walled and waxy in appearance.
Here are the chunky flowers of the Four-leaved Milkweed.
I find it interesting that although the Milkweed sap is bitter, the nectar is sweet and eagerly sought by bees and butterflies.
A honeybee enjoying a sip of nectar from the similarly shaped blossom of the Common Milkweed.
The well-named Butterfly Weed is a favorite flower of the Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly.
Although a cousin to the other Milkweed (A. tuberosa), with similar blossom structure, this variety not only is more colorful but also lacks the milky sap. (Asclepias but not Milkweed!)
Go to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.
