Milkweed, We Hardly Knew Ye

This post is coming out of leftfield, but I was trying to explain (don't ask me why) what milkweed is to Mircea. I was explaining how when I was growing up in Schoolcraft, Michigan, that I used to rip open many a milkweed pod, get the sticky "milk" on my fingers and send the seeds and "fur" flying off into the air. I loved those little pods, they were my favorite mess to make. (I loved everything about growing up in Michigan and I think at some point I'll take the opportunity to share some memories on here. I only hope that my children will have those same experiences. I hope I have children...ok, back to the blog.)

I told him I'd look up some pictures of milkweed and send it to him. In my internet travels I discovered a lot. The main, most interesting thing to me, is that milkweed can be used for this. That's right ladies and gentlemen, this isn't child's play. Milkweed is a great cure for genital warts. My favorite part of this ad is that it says it's "100% milkweed milk" but then in the active ingredients is "2.5% milkweed milk" and there are all sorts of other fun ingredients in it too. It's just a fun ad to read, that's all.

Did you know that...

-Sap from milkweed was used by pioneers as a cure for warts? (and it's available on eBay too?)
-The airborne fluffy parachute of the seed was used by Native Americans to insulate moccasins? -The dried empty seed pods were used as Christmas tree decorations by early pioneers?
-The boys and girls from Wisconsin schools collected 283,000 bags of milkweed fluff for use in military life jackets during World War II?
-It is used as an indicator of ground-level ozone air pollution?

Clearly this is a very important "weed". So respect the milkweed. I'm pretty sure I'm singlehandedly responsible for all milkweed along Flowerfield creek because man I loved that stuff.