Swamp Milkweed

The fragrant umbelled clusters of flowers range in color from soft mauve to pink to reddish-violet. Five tiny delicate petals are crowned with five nectar cups that are crucial in its intricate pollination. Within each small cup is an upward curving horn. An insect landing on the blossom slips on the horn. Its leg goes into a slit between the cups and picks up pollen. The same process is repeated as it visits other blossoms. Carrying its pollinia like large saddlebags, it then deposits them to fertilize other plants (sometimes insects are not strong enough to pull their feet out of the slits and they are trapped there and die). The fruit/seeds of the milkweed are attached to silky down and are encased in long one-chambered follicles, pods really, quite elegant in appearance. When the follicles dry, they split open, releasing the seeds with their downy parachutes to the wind.