Milkweed Explosion

Every year in early November the Milkweed pods explode (or gradually split open), releasing their individual seeds and their little parachutes to be blown across the landscape.  Milkweed is supposedly a perennial, but in my experience it behaves like an annual, and needs bare soil to germinate well.

By now most of the leaves have gone, and the landscape is grey and brown.  So little white parachutes of fluff blowing gently across the meadow really stand out, tiny as they are.

The wind was blowing as I took these, and individual seeds carried by their white bits of fluff were being carried away even as I watched.  I tried capturing one 'on-the-fly', but no luck.

The silken threads are amazingly tiny.  I may gather some pods and scatter the seeds around our own meadow to get more plants next year.  I did see a lot this summer.

It's amazing how the plants pack the seeds into the Milkweed pods too.  They're so closely packed they show no sign of their coming transformation into fluffy parachutes.

Just another sign of the seasons here in the valley.

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A very moving Remembrance Sunday today, with a focus on the story of John McCrae, the Guelph-born medical doctor who wrote the famous poem 'In Flanders Fields'.   It's the 100th Anniversary of his penning those oft-repeated lines.  Our kids went to John McCrae School, and we lived around the corner from John McCrae House, which is now a museum.

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