Looks like a milkweed to me.

Lynda

Thanks, Lynda. Very well could be. I pulled up a few pictures, and they look similar.

I noticed a lot of dried milkweed pods when we moved in in November.

Thanks again!

It is milkweed and it is absolutely impossible to get rid of. It's roots go to somewhere in China and I'm afraid that unless you are willing to get radical with it, you might as well get used to it. The one saving grace about this invader is that butterflies love it. I spend a good portion of the spring pulling and pulling to get the babies out of the beds prior to planting but it always shows back up again. One other thing to do is to make sure that the flowers dont develop seed pods and spread it even further.
Kat

Milkweed is the host plant for the monarch butterfly. Without milkweed, the monarch cannot exist. We pretty much leave this plant alone in the field. Then, when the butterflies emerge, we pretend we're in Fantasia.........or something like that!

Thanks, everyone.

Yeah, I don't mind leaving it as long as it's useful to someone - me, butterflies, a vase...

I will be vigilant about the seedpods, though.

Thanks again!

-Stacey

In the garden, I usually let this plant grow - it's so fun to watch the butterfly life cycle play out in such a small space...

However - milkweed is toxic to horses and goats, and I have both. I'm not worried about them eating it - they're never quite that hungry, but they eat every other thing in the pasture, leaving JUST the milkweed to go to seed - so you can imagine what our pasture looked like the second year we had it. Acres and acres of milkweed and almost nothing edible for the animals to eat.

Now we vigilantly rotate pastures and everything stays in balance, but I was just going to say that when that happened we just pulled off every seed pod we came across and, even though we weren't super vigilant or systematic about it, it made a HUGE difference in what grew the following year .

So I think you're right - that's really the way to go about trying to control it.

Oh, good! I'm glad to hear the voice of experience. I'll be a seedpod hunter come summer :)

-Stacey