Joann Merritt's Essays

The Patriotic Pods
September, 1999

While botanizing on the Harris Ranch in southeast Midland County, Don and I found Broad-leaved Milkweed (Asclepias latifolia) with mature seedpods. Each of the numerous seeds inside a pod is attached to a strand of silky floss that expands into a beautiful gossamer plume when carried aloft by the wind into the sunshine. We seized the opportunity to photograph these interesting pods as they dispersed their contents into the air. We soon needed these pictures to illustrate a “Wildflower Fact, Fiction, and Folklore” presentation we gave for Midland’s Native Plant Symposium.

While searching for material to use in our program I found an article written by Moldenke in 1949 concerning the use of milkweed pods in World War II. During the war milkweed floss was used as a substitute for kapok, a fiber which comes from the seedpods of the tropical kapok (or silk cotton) tree and was used as a filler for life jackets. Prior to the war the United States imported this fiber but because the Japanese soon controlled many kapok plantations, alternate materials were needed. When it was found that milkweed floss was similar to kapok, an appeal was issued for people across the United States to collect milkweed pods and send them to specified central locations to be processed. One might say that Milkweed Pods received their draft notices from the government.

Frances Williams, whose son Burr is Educational Director for Sibley Nature Center, was then living in Kansas and remembers when the call was made. If Midland participated in this program I was not aware of it. With our low average rainfall perhaps then, as now, the milkweeds did not grow in sufficient quantity for this purpose.

Coincidentally, in a Reminisce magazine my brother-in-law, Norman Zachry, read a similar account that harkened back to the war years. Wendell Smith, author of the article, lived in Nebraska and recalled that the school he attended was dismissed for the day in order for the students to collect pods along the Burlington Railroad right-of-way. This was a big event for children from a small country school as they helped their country and also got paid 20 cents for each bag they filled.

Don spoke with a man in the Air Force Research Department in San Antonio who remembered gathering gunny sacks full of pods 20 miles west of Detroit when he was 10 years old. He had no further knowledge about their use during the war and we didn’t pursue the matter as we had the information we needed for our Wildflower Fact story.

Many organizations tramped the countryside finding milkweeds and collecting their mature pods. It had to be a nationwide effort since two bushels of pods were required to make enough floss to fill just one life jacket which would keep a sailor or aviator afloat. Big milkweed farms were established in Michigan and other states where the harvest became a large scale operation. In 1943 93,000 pounds of floss was harvested. The next years goal was l.5 million pounds, but thankfully the war was soon over. Now there are manufactured materials to take the place of nature’s bounty, but the milkweed plant with its pods of silky floss had its time of glory.

Since the blooms of most milkweeds are neither colorful nor easily seen they are not utilized in native plant flower gardens. However, they are used by butterfly gardeners who want to observe the life cycle of Monarchs and Queens. These two species of butterflies will lay their eggs only on milkweed plants. Some 40 species grow across Texas, 11 of which are on the Midland County List. In my experience the Red flowered (Asclepias brachystephana) is the most abundant and preferred host plant in Midland although I have found caterpillars on several other milkweeds.

One milkweed that should do well in the native plant landscape is Twinevine (Sarcostemma cynanchoides) if one is careful not to bruise the leaves or stems as they both give off a disagreeable odor. At the intersection of State Highways 1379 and 1357 in southeast Midland County, Twinevine has twined itself into the sheep fence along the road and draped the adjacent mesquite trees in the low-lying pasture. This attractive perennial has clusters of white pink-tinged flowers blooming among its beautiful dark green foliage and is easily transplanted.

What fun and pleasure it is to witness gossamer plumes ascending from their “launching pods” to drift like hot air balloons, each carrying a single seed like a basket beneath its canopy. With proper rainfall wherever the seeds come down and touch the earth they will sprout, take root and grow.

This is our salute to The Patriotic Pods with their courageous bits of fluff who went to war and served their country well. The salute seems appropriate at this time as September 2, 1999 marks the 54th anniversary of the official end of WWII and the beginning of a time of peace and happiness for our country.