Milkweed and World War II

Mar 11

deannainmaine

Milkweed is probably best known as the food of choice for monarch butterfly caterpillars but it has also played a very important role in World War II.

The seeds of the milkweed are attached to very fine filaments, also known as the coma or floss, which allow the seeds to be carried on the wind for dispersal. The filaments are hollow, coated in wax, make excellent insulators and, apparently, they are quite buoyant as well.

During WWII, the United States government paid the children, friends and families of Petoskey, Michigan to collect milkweed pods. The floss of the seeds was used in life preservers for the soldiers. Typically, the filler for life preservers was a material called kapok. This is a cottony fiber gathered from ceiba trees found in the rainforests of Asia. Of course, during WWII shipping from Asia was cut off and the United States no longer had access to the material. After much discussion and suggestions, it was decided to use milkweed floss as the new filler for life preservers. It is reported that more than 5000 tons of milkweed floss was collected to use in the life preservers. Milkweed floss is still in use today mixed with down in hypoallergenic pillows.

What a wonderful way to begin a discussion of a very tragic historical period of time. This topic could be used to begin a physics discussion on buoyancy, economics, war tactics, patriotism, and even the math behind how much milkweed filament was needed for one life preserver and how they figured how much was needed to provide all the preservers they required.

Many of us are fortunate (in my opinion) to live in an area where there is milkweed. What a wonderful hands-on opportunity for your students to go outside and collect milkweed pods for themselves. They could do experiments with the filaments and then donate the seeds to the Bring Back the Monarchs campaign sponsored by Monarch Watch. This organization also sends free seeds to be used and planted for schools.