We Have Pollination!

Day 291: We have pollination! Yes, my milkweed plants are making pods! And I cannot credit the success to my intervention because the flower I attempted to pollinate by hand is not among those with swelling ovaries. That said, there are at least a dozen strikingly obvious developing pods on the plants which flowered earliest, and I think there will also be some on the plants which came into bloom a little later. It's too soon to tell with those, although it looks like a few of the flower stems are beginning to curl (as opposed to drooping). That was what caught my eye first: one curled, plump flower stem held above a mass of withering flowers. Closer examination revealed an ovary starting to swell, and then as I raised my eyes, I saw this pod, about as big as the end of my thumb! Then I really started peering in among the fading flower clusters, and saw that the pollinators had done the job I'd failed to do. Finally, I'm going to have milkweed pods!