Summer Looms. Milkweed Blooms.
Feels More like March!
So we have been mostly house-bound by a persistent moist, trapped low pressure system sucking Atlantic and Gulf Moisture into the area this week.
According to Kevin Myatt’s weather synopsis in Cardinal News, parts of our region were in moderately severe drought conditions before this system moved in, and this moisture will help—if it comes in moderation.
â–º Summer on hold as a rainy low gets stuck
But what I thought to share just now comes from visiting my blog archive for JULY in years past, where I came upon a short blurb leading up to the video below. It is worth seeing. Or seeing again!
Read the post about How Milkweeds Do It and by all means (if natural history holds any interest for you—and if not, why not!?) watch the video.
â–º Pollinia: How Milkweeds Do It from Fragments from Floyd, July 2019
And if you do see the video, as good Junior Woodchucks you pledge to dissect a single flower of the next common milkweed you see (not while driving) to find one or more pollinia. (A hand lens helps but is not necessary.)
Your merit badge is in the mail.
Post pictures in comments if your camera’s macro focus is down to the details.
Our pasture (which you can see in the image at the top of the post) is in its second year in which we will not cut hay but brush hog the 15 acres in November. Milkweed is growing tall, soon flowering and visited by pollinators and feeders on the sap and—oh please— including Monarch Butterflies!
I enjoyed the video!