Sacred in the Ordinary, Installation #7: Beauty in a Seed Pod

Sometimes, words simply cannot describe a moment 

when pure magic meets the morning.  

Such was the case during my walk-about this past Saturday morning.  The temperature was in the 40s, the sky was blue, the sun was shining.  Many times I have strolled alongside the front edge of the brush-line on my way to get the morning paper.  Many times I have scanned the multiflora rose that invades the hillside.  Many times I have marveled at the lines created by the various wild grasses.

And during each of those strolls where I surveyed the natural landscape,
I have passed a cluster of tall stalks, each sporting large seed pods that have the texture of aged and ancient driftwood.

I have stopped to study their curious textures.  I have stopped and taken in the interesting vignettes they create with their empty husks.


Yes, countless times I have glanced at those tall stalks crowned with those ancient looking seed pods, and each time I simply continued on my way to the mailbox.









But not this past Saturday morning.  On this morning, Mother Nature had woven her magic.  On this morning, sun-reflecting, cotton-candy white floss-like fibers were spun like pure angel's hair from the seed pods that had opened.

Pure magic. Pure wonder. 

So pure, that I will not attempt to describe the experience with words...but rather, 

will bow to their wondrous beauty by sharing these photographs that I snapped 

on this magical Saturday morning of Milkweed** seed pods 

that had burst open in all their glory.  

**Asclepias L. (1753), the milkweeds, is a genus of herbaceous perennial, dicotyledonous plants that contains over 140 known species. It previously belonged to the family Asclepiadaceae, 

but this is now classified as the subfamily Asclepiadoideae of the dogbane family Apocynaceae.

Milkweed is named for its milky juice, which contains alkaloids, latex, and several other complex compounds including cardenolides. Some species are known to be toxic.

Carl Linnaeus named the genus after Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, because of the many folk-medicinal uses for the milkweed plants.

Pollination in this genus is accomplished in an unusual manner. Pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains or tetrads, as is typical for most plants. The feet or mouthparts of flower visiting insects such as bees, wasps and butterflies, slip into one of the five slits in each flower formed by adjacent anthers. The bases of the pollinia then mechanically attach to the insect, pulling a pair of pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off. Pollination is effected by the reverse procedure in which one of the pollinia becomes trapped within the anther slit.

Asclepias species produce their seeds in follicles. The seeds, which are arranged in overlapping rows, have white silky filament-like hairs known as pappus, silk, or floss. The follicles ripen and split open and the seeds, each carried by several dried pappus, are blown by the wind. They have many different flower colorations.