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What’sThis?

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Anyone know what these are?  They grow on a vine and they’re growing wild around here.  I’ve never seen them before.  I haven’t picked them up to see if they have needles like a cactus.  Whatever they are . . we have a bumper crop.  I suppose I’m not lucky enough for them to be edible.  Don’t worry . . I’m not going to eat them but wouldn’t it be nice if they tasted like little watermelons?

Thanks for any info you have on these things.

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Comments

  2. They looked like milkweed to me but milkweed around here grows this bushy thing with big leaves and the pods (which look exactly like that) hang from it.

    I hope someone knows what they are. I’m curious.

  3. My thought was milkweed, too.

    Then I Googled “Texas, pod, vine” and got “pearl milkweed vine”. Check it out and see if the foliage around looks like the other pics.

  4. Don’t remember seeing anything like that in your area. Might cut some off and take it by a nursery next time you are in town. If it is a pod from milkweed, break it open to disperse seeds when mature and you will draw Monarch butterflies!

    • And, possibly, the ire of neighboring farmers/ranchers. Around here (S.E. MN) we work hard to control such plants.

  7. They’re seed pods. I agree – looks like milk-weed seed pods – but they aren’t – however – if you opened one up you would find all this fluffy white stuff (each attached to a seed) that will blow all over everywhere in a strong breeze. Edible – probably not. A weed? Hmm – although we always regarded it so – something that prolific may have a use – somewhere at sometime – but sure beats me! And I would NOT be the one to try it out! My advice? ….. pull the derned things and dump in the incinerator (in the compost pile they will still mature – and seeds go everywhere – ask me how I know! 🙂 )

  10. How about asking the folks who sold you your house? They might know. It looks like a seed pod for sure and almost cactus like too.

  11. I don’t have any idea what they are, but considering where you live, they probably stick, sting or bite.

  12. Hello Judy,

    it is a Asclepias syriaca, in dutch called a parrotplant. It is certainly not something to eat, but the things you see are very usable for decoration. Then they look like little parrots.
    Greetings from Alice from the Netherlands

  13. They don’t look like the milkweeds I grew up around. Monarch caterpillars eat the leaves of the plant. They attatch their chrysalis (sp) to the leaves to before they turn into butterflies.The pods are larger than these in the picture and dry in the Fall to disperse the seeds. There is no stringy vine, just a tall upright plant.

  15. Check with your county extension agent. They are usually good with local plants.

  16. They look a bit like the wild cucumbers we have here in Iowa only ours aren’t pointy at the end. Ours are more rounded. If that’s what it is, it can be invasive. There are people around here who don’t pull or spray for it. Then it climbs up their evergreen trees. It will kill the evergreen trees.

  17. Interesting, my husband just came home from spending a couple of days down at our farm south of you. He was showing me a picture to ask if I knew what it was–same pod you showed! I then told him about your post with the same question. Interesting that he had never noticed it before in 60 years of going down there. I told him about the commenters on here and he googled pearl milkweed vine and it showed this very pod. And a picture of the inside just as another commenter described, white fluffy stuff inside attached to a pod. The milkweed plant is a host plant for the Monarchs, but not sure about this vine. The milkweed plant is not invasive in our area, but don’t know about the vine. I don’t destroy any plant that is a host for butterflies.

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