Detail of a seed box containing seeds of the silk plant

by Margot van den Berg

A slowly opening seed pod of the silk plant Moby Dick (Asclepias physocarpa 'Moby Dick').

It starts out dense and round, it is then pale green and has sparse hairs scattered across its surface.As it matures, the outside of the seed pod dries out, changing its shape. And while the outside dries out, inside all the seeds ripen.They get ready to fly out, looking for a fertile spot. When the seeds are ripe enough, the seed pod slowly cracks open and the seeds become visible.
Tightly lined up, they are attached to a seed bar that runs down the middle of the seed box. They are attached with the end of the white fluffy hairs and slowly they separate and space is created between the seeds and the hairs. If the seeds are rich, they slowly loosen, get more and more space, hang on to each other for a while and eventually float away.

The branches with seeds were in my house and I watched the ripening process with amazement. I didn't know it was so beautiful or how every day the seed pod with seeds would look different. The process was so slow that I saw no change, while the seed box clearly changed and the seeds eventually floated away. Magical.

In the photo, I captured the moment when the seeds are still attached to the seed frame and slowly detach from each other and the seed frame. The white fluffy hairs are coming apart and loose hairs are already visible here and there