Milkweed Pods for WWII Effort
Children Gathered Milkweed Pods for WWII Effort
It has been a few years since my father passed away. But one story he shared with me of his young teenage years offered more than just a 13-year-old's memories of childhood; it tendered a fragment of our nation's history when even small children could make a big impact on the war efforts. This patriotic call to serve led my father to walk the railroad tracks, fences, and creeks near his home in search of a valuable commodity: Milkweed.
The common milkweed is treasured by many because it provides crucial habitat for the monarch butterfly. Although there has been much debate over whether it’s a weed or a desirable plant, a true patriot cannot question milkweed’s heroic place in our great American history. In 1944, this raw material was highly sought after in the war against Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany.
Milkweed seeds contain delicate white hairs (each attached to a seed) referred to as “floss.” When the seed pod cracks open, the seeds are carried aloft by the wind. This ingenious evolutionary adaptation is also utilized by the cottonwood tree, the dandelion, and many other species.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not been discovered.”
In an era before the widespread use of synthetic fibers, the value of milkweed floss lay in its natural buoyancy. During WWII, life preservers were critical to Allied success, and the manufacturers began using the floss as stuffing. To the armed forces, whose airmen and sailors fought so much of the war on or over the seas, this common plant was invaluable.
Milkweed floss, however, was not the manufacturer’s first choice for life preserver stuffing. After the Japanese gained control of the Dutch East Indies (today Indonesia) during the war, they cut off the main U.S. supply of floss which came from the tropical kapok tree. Kapok seeds are also distributed naturally by wispy strands of cotton-like fiber. Luckily for the Allied forces, milkweed proved to be an acceptable substitute. Unfortunately, it would take almost three years to produce a sufficient commercial crop. The government had no choice but to make the unusual and urgent call:
“School children of America! Help save your father’s, brothers’, and neighbors’ lives by collecting milkweed pods.”*
With labor at a premium both in the city and the countryside, children were enlisted in the cause, spending untold hours searching for milkweed.
Onion sacks were used to carry the collected pods. My father would fill the onion sacks he procured from his grandfather's store, fill them with the pods, and then hang them over the fences to dry. A young collector received 15 cents per bag, with an additional 5 cents if the pods were dried. Two bags of pods contained floss for one life jacket. The U.S. military’s call for the collection of 2 million pounds of floss resulted in enough floss to fill 1.2 million life jackets.
World War II required continual sacrifices – large and small – of the general public: scrap drives, war bonds, blackouts, rations cards, and higher taxes were just a few examples.
Our country’s children proved that heroes can come in small packages ... just like the common milkweed.
In Loving Memory of my Father, Robert Lawrence Norton
*From a brochure produced by the Soil Conservation Service for War Hemp Industries.
