Day 254: Last year, my milkweed finally bloomed, but never made pods to set seed. Milkweed isn't pollinated like other plants where loose pollen is transported from one plant to another. Its pollen particles are waxy, and adhere to one another to form masses called pollinia. These can only be accessed through a narrow slit in the side of the stigma. When an insect accidentally gets a leg inside the slit, sometimes a pollinium or two (they occur in pairs) gets caught and extracted. Now comes the tricky part. The insect must now get its leg caught in a slit again, but on another plant, and then if the Pollination Gods are smiling, some of the pollen from the pollinia/pollinium will be left behind. Fortunately for milkweed species, insects aren't too bright, so the chances of getting a foot caught in the same kind of "bear trap" twice are relatively high. Milkweed is pollinated largely by insects, but here there seems to be an arachnid ready to offer a helping hand...I mean, "foot."
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