I love milkweed plants—their shape and texture fascinate me at all stages of of their development. I photographed this milkweed plant last Thursday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, a plant that most might describe as past its prime—I would call it beautiful.
If you look carefully at the photo, you will see several red Large Milkweed Bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus) crawling about on the plant. It is always worthwhile to examine milkweed plants carefully, because a fascinating variety of insects feed on milkweed or use it as part of their habitat.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I found this milkweed photo lovely, Mike, and when I double-clicked on it, was rewarded with the two different stages of the beautiful milkweed bugs. Wonderful colors, textures and the beauty of autumn.
Thanks, Jet. This is one of my “artsy” type photos that I periodically feature in a blog posting. A photo like this is a bit more abstract than most of my other images and I never know for sure if others will find it appealing. Your final sentence suggests to me that you “got” it, Jet, which is actually not a surprise given the exchanges of comments that we have had in the past that show that we are kindred spirits in many ways.
I, too, think it’s beautiful. Fabulous photo. Thank you.
Thanks, Ann.
A few years ago I came across a book by Anurag Agrawal at my monthly book swap titled “Monarchs and Milkweed”. It was a fascinating and enlightening read about both. Though Monarch butterflies are dependent upon them, they are a great food source for some pollinators and the Red Invaders (another name the Milkweed Bug has been called)…as your beautiful seed pod photo nicely shows! Thank-you, Mr. Mike!
Lovely capture of the diverse textures.
Nice Mike! We have large fields of them in a local park! But have not gone to photograph them yet. Or maybe I have photographed them so much over the years now that I am looking for different subjects!
This is both botanical and artistic. I love the spilling seeds and the lines of the vines to the right.
That’s a wonderful photo, Mike. The ones on the right look like geodes.
I love milkweed at this stage… a November beauty.
One of my favorite seed pods.