The following are some photos that I took of milkweed floss. I was outside and found that a few of the milkweed seed pods had split open and were releasing the seed inside by way of the delicate floss that the seed is attached to. The sun was shining and the way the sunlight danced on the floss had a beauty to it that seemed almost magical.
There was a big gust of wind right after I took the last photo above so this next photo is a little blurry but produced a lot of colorful sparkles on the floss as it swayed in the wind.
Milkweed floss is the fluff inside the seed pod that carries the seed on the wind. The seed is only lightly attached to the floss and is easily dropped from the floss anywhere on the ground.
I expect to have more milkweed than I planned on next year as some of the pods split open and released some seeds in my garden before I could collect them.
I know this because I found floss without seeds over some of my other plants in the garden including the Hibiscus seed pods and the red Salvia plants.
I've been familiar with milkweed some as my mother had it growing in our back yard when I was young. I keep some in my garden for the Monarch butterflies. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed as it is the only food in nature that the Monarch Caterpillars will eat. They eat the leaves of the milkweed plant before pupating into a chrysalis. I've found, personally, that the Monarch caterpillars tend to prefer the younger milkweed leaves over the older and more mature leaves. However, in my garden it also seemed like it was the older more mature plants that were the ones producing the seed pods. On Tuesday, I went out to collect the seed pods that had not opened yet and some that had just started to open. A few days before that I collected some from milkweed stalks that had fallen down and the pods broke open on the ground. I have a spot way back in the yard that I want to drop some seeds in rather than milkweed completely taking over the garden that they currently grow in. I think it would be a good spot to have more milkweed for the butterflies and it would also add some privacy shielding from the alley behind the yard.
Anyway, I saw the recent #wednesdaywalk post by @tattoodjay who is also the host for #wednesdaywalk and it featured beautiful photos including one of the milkweed floss with seeds attached and an empty seed pod. I told him that I had planned on doing a post to show the beauty of the milkweed floss also and he said I could tag him on it for him to take a look at the photos I took as well.
*Interesting facts that I just recently found out is that milkweed floss is buoyant and has been used as filling for life jackets and belts. In addition, it's been used as upholstery padding, stuffing for numerous things and as an insulation material. It is also great to use for absorbing oil in oil spills. I found that out because while looking at the floss I began to wonder if it could be used in tying flies for fly fishing. As "Universal Thought" would have it, it can be used for that purpose as well! I feel like the empty pods could be used in some sort of crafty way also and sure enough it can!
*source
*source
*source
*source
All in all .. pretty cool .. huh?! All this from going out and catching the sunlight glistening off the fibers of the milkweed floss! It's sort of like nature's own Christmas tinsel and we all know how much I love the Christmas tinsel! It just makes everything a little more sparkly! 💖
All photos and text by me @deerjay. All rights reserved.
Thank you so much @ackhoo and @qurator Team!! Your support and encouragement is always appreciated!! 💖
Thank you very much @pixresteemer!! 💞