While we know that milkweed provides benefits to many insects besides monarch butterflies, did you know that not so very long ago, it had a specific importance to humans as well?
Up until WWII, life jackets and flight suits were stuffed with the buoyant fibers of the kapok tree, which grows in Java. Hostilities made it necessary for the U.S. government to find a substitute. Enter milkweed to save the day! Milkweed floss is naturally water-repellent, buoyant, and lightweight. To source the material, the federal government reclassified milkweed from a “noxious weed” to a “strategic wartime material” and launched a massive national collection campaign targeting schoolchildren. 4-Hers, Boy Scouts, and children throughout the Midwest scoured fields and roadsides for milkweed pods, and were usually paid about 15 cents per bag.
By the war’s end, enough milkweed floss had been collected to produce about 1.2 million life preservers.
Today’s entrepreneurs are utilizing this versatile material for products such as hypo-allergenic textiles, insulation, and oil-spill cleanups.
