Sunday, July 8, 2012

Do you know this flower?

I love the texture and colors in this flower.  This is a common weed found in the road ditches of country roads.  Milkweed.  It gets it's name because if you pick the flower or break a leaf, a milky looking sticky substance oozes out. 

I used to have silica gel that I picked flowers (not just these) and carefully sprinkled the granules over the flowers where they sat for a few days until they were dry. 

As a young child, I remember pulling these "weeds".  Now that I've seen the flower and learned how to craft with the dried pod. I'm tempted to plant more.


2 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. An interesting fact about milkweed is that it is the ONLY plant that Monarch butterflies will lay their eggs on. So the milkweek is essential for the continuation of those beautiful butterflies. I "let" several milkweed grow alongside my driveway and am delighted to see the Monarchs and other butterflies it attracts. The Monarchs are not endangered but their numbers are dwindling, so this is my small way of helping them out so that they don't disappear.

    ReplyDelete