Common Milkweed, ripe seed pods . . .  (Asclepias syriaca)  Native to North America.
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A Poetry of Flowers? . . . [miniature Of Flowers and Poems]
But what of the more common wayside species?
And what of the difference between plants that are native to a place<
and those which are merely random visitors, sometimes
making a total mess of the natural order of things?

What is a weed really? Here's a poem, and a
miniature that look at the question of "what is a weed"
from very different perspectives:

ON THE WAYSIDE

What's a weed but the
unwanted noise of another
man's music.

But beyond the margin,
that little strip of
uncultivated life
to the side of a
well-traveled road,

rank growth is my
splendor.

Everything needs a
place to be, and here,
even the weeds feel at home,

a free space where the trouble-
some have gathered together, un-

folding their own songs,
f l o w e r i n g

   in peace.

(Photographs were made Saturday, the 12th of November 2005)