Milkweed | Newton, MA

Another pandemic discovery…

Between walking my sheltie in longer stretches during the pandemic, and looking for details to appreciate, I noticed these this spring on the main street that I often walked.  The flowers reminded of these little stone carved trinket lidded-boxes that my dad used to collect when he traveled to England.  They are so small and intricate, but the petals look also so sturdy.  I looked them up, and was surprised these were the infamous milkweeds!  I knew they were important to monarch butterflies… but now exactly how… did you know monarch caterpillars can only eat milkweed leaves???

As they wilted through the seasons, they started forming this ‘little shop of horrors’ type of pod.  It had been an unusually wet summer so most plant leaves had spots and bugs were thriving, and not so photogenic.  But come fall, I started noticing this spectacular show!  When a fellow member on the local ‘buy nothing’ Facebook group offered up to share her pods, I was so excited to receive whole pods!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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