Collecting Milkweed Seeds Using Fire

Milkweed plants are host plants for butterflies like the Monarch butterfly. The flowers are are visited by butterflies and bees, and the plant itself is a food source for Monarch butterfly caterpillars. The seeds pods of milkweeds are easy to identify because of their large, horn-like appearance on the plant.

When the milkweed seed pod has opened some of the chaff attached to the seeds may be picked up by the wind and the seeds dispersed. If you do not get to the seed pod soon enough you'll lose some seeds, but many of the seeds inside will stay packed in the seed pod.

Separating milkweed seeds from the chaff can be time consuming and annoying. Fortunately, there's an easy way to remove the seeds from the chaff using a lighter. Yes, you're going to play with fire. Simply remove as much of the chaff and seeds from within the milkweed seed pod and set it the chaff on fire. Check out the video for more.