78 thoughts on “Name that plant”

  7. Tough one Matt, I was going to say it’s a dandelion then as the seeds look very similar as well as it being one of my most favourite drinks “dandelion and burdock” but I assume I am wrong in this case.
    BTW really looking forward to the new WP 3.8 have found out your secret btw and don’t worry I won’t tell anyone else will just tease them with it!
    Laters,
    – Phillip

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  8. that was my first thought because that plant has an indelible quality that spreads itself everywhere once it starts from those seeds

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  11. Wow..I don’t know what it is called but its lovely! At first I thought it was angels hair..Going to see if your commenters are correct@milkweed..It appears to be glowing whatever it is doesn’t look like a weed

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  17. Looks very pretty, whatever it is…reminds me of a dandelion before it turns yellow. I’m very inexperienced as far as identifying most plants is concerned. (When I was little, I thought dandelions were flowers, & used to give my mom a bouquet of them). I know they’re weeds now obviously, but still think they’re pretty.

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  19. it is a milkweed, i remember breaking open the pods as a child, watching the seeds blow away in the wind. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on the leaves of milkweed plants each spring, so don’t destroy these plants!

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  22. It looks like cotton when it’s 1st picked, from a TV program I saw-(I’m pretty sure it was “Places in the Heart” with Sally Field, & her character had to pick cotton to make ends meet, because if I remember correctly, I think she was being threatened with foreclosure by the bank, & her home was going to be repossessed.

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  23. It reminds me of the early stages of dandelions before they turn yellow & when children would blow on them & the little white fragments would scatter all over with the wind, although I don’t think there were any little black “seeds”, which btw look like apple seeds, incidentally. Very cute-looking plant.

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  24. Milkweed is an herb used for medicinal purposes, from what I understand, but I’m not sure what health benefits with which it’s associated. (I’ve heard of “milk thistle” too before, but I don’t know what it’s supposed to help people with medically). Are those 2 herbs related to 1 another? (I know I’m talking about different topics here, lol)!

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  46. I just saw one of these today. And thought of your photo. Good to know the monarchs like them. I’ll have to watch for them next summer. Milk thistle is supposed to be good for your liver, I’ve read.

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  48. Reblogged this on Agbólóhùn and commented:
    Hahaha! I remember we used to have this plant in my house when we were growing up. Each time the pods got dried they opened up and those silky seeds wafted around in the wind. It was delightful for the kids we were back then, and later in high school when the Biology teacher explain means of dispersion, I had a unique example back at home.

    What’s this plant called? Any ideas?

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  50. It is called ‘Appuppan thaadi’ in Malayalam. The language is spoken in South India, in a state called Kerala. The word means grandfather’s beard 😀 During the season, these shimmer, fly & flutter all over the place. They travel a long distance in the wind & make the place look like heaven.

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  51. I know it’s milkweed, but my sister and I would call them American Fuzzy Pickles when we were younger. We even made a song about them. Haha.

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  58. Reblogged this on bettemae and commented:
    Milkweed…there are just some things that wrap your senses and pull you back in time. I remember seeing so much more milkweed when I was a child. I remember how soft it felt on my face as I brought it across my cheeks. We were taught by and large to leave nature be where it is- largely because I think my mom didn’t trust us to differentiate between what may be toxic and what was not. But this plant was one we were encouraged to handle. My mom, whose parents came from Lithuania, told us that in other countries these plants were used to spin into fabric. She likened it to cotton plants….and we would call it that always to be corrected by her.
    This plant and my mother’s explanations led me to begin to consider where fabric and thread and yarn all came from. Well, this and Rumpelstilkin’s tale…
    I remember the heat of the sun on my arms as I played with the cottony ends.ANd of course the texture of this pod would always remind me of pussywillows, a favorite combination with forsythia. Texture plays a greater part of human awareness than what people now believe in this age where so much time and money is spent on the visual and audio. These in their own ways are part of the miracle of nature to be found. These parts of nature bring us close to mysteries in life, and while not necessarily solving them. They are gifts, gifts not to take for granted.

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  61. I have not seen this in years. I remember collecting milkweed pods as a kid. They were everywhere around my home as a kid, but now I am far from home and have not even seen this since the days of my youth.

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  71. Pingback: Poem and a Picture (lives you touch) | PRIORHOUSE blog

  72. It’s clearly an effeeder!!!
    An efficient seed that can help one spread the best anywhere desired in our planet and out the space into others. I miss seeing the plant it comes from, though.
    Thanks for showing us!
    I would like to make you a request. Would you please hunt pics of a cocoa tree and its flowers and fruits and the process until it gets to be chocolate? In other words, would you act as the amazing non-wordpress effeder you are in this particular topic? I can’t think of any other person who can have the appropriate situation so handy and who can reflect that amazing gift of nature in a most sentitive, beautiful way.
    In fact, I need your help badly to duly present the beauty springing from the young 42+ who are just taking the baton from the feelings some bravely managed to express in the 70s. I wish that that may just not fit into your agenda.

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  73. This beautiful plant, milkweed, is critical for the survival of the Monarch butterfly! Please plant the seeds on every inch of spare meadow, and help bring these glorious butterflies back to their former numbers! They used to migrate here in South Florida, but construction, and destruction of their habitat has pushed them out. PLANT MILKWEED!

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