Milkweed

This is Carolina milkweed. Goethe is about as far south as it gets. I thought this one had such an interesting color. It was the first time I have seen it.



Even though there are dozens and dozens of different kinds of milkweeds in the U.S., there aren't too many other milkweeds at Goethe. There are in Florida, just not where I'm doing research.

Since milkweeds are a favorite of many wildflower enthusiasts, myself included, I decided to include some milkweed pictures from previous, non-Florida sites. I know, it's cheating, but just this once.



Swamp milkweed in the upper peninsula of Michigan.



Yeah, I was a 'yooper' for a summer. In fact, that is where I learned that you can eat milkweed pods. They are quite good. If you pick them at the right time, they taste like asparagus. Seriously.



This is common milkweed, the 'weedy' one all over the Midwest. I happened to take this picture in Minnesota at Cedar Creek, where I interned and supervised field research a few years back.

This species is the best one to collect for eating purposes. Of course, this is also the species that monarch caterpillars feed on before their transformation. Two quick warnings though, if you ever think you would actually like to eat the pods. 1) Boil the pods at least once, if not twice, to get rid of the milky white sap. 2) Like I mentioned above, timing is everything. If you open up the pod and it looks like the picture below, it's way too late. You must get them as soon as they begin to appear on the plant, in the same way you would collect and eat asparagus shoots as soon as or shortly after they appear above ground.



This last one here is butterfly milkweed, which attracts many non-monarch butterflies. It's fairly common throughout the eastern U.S. in prairies, sandy roadsides, forest openings. I took this in the Bankhead National Forest in Alabama. Not a great picture, but probably my favorite milkweed of the bunch.