Swamp Milkweed

What? No animals this time? No, not this time. Today I'm bringing you one of my favorite flowers. Milkweed! This particular plant is Swamp Milkweed. Usually the pink color and the long, thin shape of the leaves gives it away this time of year. The look of the pods, yes pods, gives it away later.

It was the pods that first helped me discover milkweed plants. I've known of those since I was a kid. I had no idea that they had flowers back then, and I didn't really care. My love of flowers has come only recently, so I still know very little about them.

But the milkweed flowers are something even a boy who runs very far from flowers can like. They have a secret that can only be appreciated if you look very closely at them. My next picture will show you a little bit.

These milkweed flowers have fangs! They look like aliens from outer space with those monstrous looking fangs to protect them! When I saw those fangs for the first time, the first word out of my mouth was, "Cool!"

But are they really fangs? No, not really. I doubt that they're really even sharp. I haven't tried touching them, so I don't know. It's not that I'm afraid. The reason is that I make it a rule for myself to touch nothing. It's for the protection of nature, not for myself.

I'm not sure how clearly you can see the fangs in this picture. I forgot to get a closeup, so this one is not very clear. Search for milkweed in my archives and you'll find some better pictures of these fangs, and also some really fun and goofy stories.

Milkweed is the plant where you can find Monarch butterflies and their caterpillars. I have never found any, but I have found several other kinds of interesting bugs. Always get a long close look when you find milkweed.

And finally, I added something new to some of my posts. Blogger offers a location feature that I never thought about in the past. After my last post it suddenly dawned on me that I could use that location feature to show the locations of the parks I visit.

So now you'll find the Location link below most of my posts. Click on it to find my featured park on Google maps. Any of you who live in the area can now go to these parks yourself. Google maps will even give you driving directions. And if you see a guy there in a giant rat suit, run as fast as you can!


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