Growing Naturalists: The Collection of Seed Pods in the Fall

A way to have fun while students learn actively outside.

© Photo by author, Carol Labuzzetta.

In 2014, I had my garden club students collect milkweed seed pods. We had a well-established school garden and a myriad of standard milkweed weed seed pods.

Instead of letting the pods dry and burst open disbursing the seeds, I kept my eye on them. Monarch Watch had put out a call for milkweed pods. The organization would collect the pods, strip the seeds from the silk, and distribute the milkweed seeds to areas of the country in which common milkweed was native and needed.

Collection of milkweed seed pods at school. © Carol Labuzzetta, 2014.

Once the seed pods were dry and starting to split, our garden club headed outdoors to collect the pods. The students had a ball collecting the spikey, elongated ovoid-shaped, green, and slightly browning pods.

Box of common milkweed pods to be shipped to Monarch Watch. © Carol Labuzzetta, 2014

They knew the importance of the activity as we had discussed the need for milkweed to be available for monarch butterflies to sustain their life cycle. They felt…