Got Milkweed?

I found this milkweed pod in my backyard.  I find them fascinating – an improbable combination of a hard, spiny, ancient looking pod that is packed full of silky soft beautifully white little fluffy seeds.

Some interesting facts about milkweed:  North America is home to more than 100 species of milkweed which are known for having a “milky” sticky sap if you break the stem or leaves.  You can find the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) plant in fields and roadsides across New York State.

Here’s the best fact of all…  “In World War II, schoolchildren across the Midwest collected thousands of pounds of milkweed fluff to stuff life preservers for the armed forces in the Pacific, because kapok, the normal material used for this purpose, came from Japanese-occupied Indonesia and was unavailable. Today, you can buy pillows, jackets, and comforters stuffed with this material, which is wonderfully soft and has a higher insulative value than goose down, from a company called Ogallala Down, in Ogallala, Nebraska.” [from http://www.wildfoods.info/wildfoods/milkweed.html].  Who knew!??

Well, here’s my picture of the milkweed from my backyard.  I had to cut the stalk but I didn’t feel too bad about it since it’s a weed that seems to crop up all the time in my backyard.  I took this picture in my basement by placing the stalk in a small jar full of sand, using a piece of black foam core behind for a nice clean background, a piece of white foam core on the side to reflect some of the light back onto the milkweed, and then lit the milkweek with a halogen light that I have.

Photo info:  Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 100mm macro lens, manual exposure using ISO 100, 4 seconds, f/22 (for maximum depth of field), focal length 100mm, evaluative metering, no flash.