Macro Monday

Starting this week, I'll be featuring macro images from my archives on Mondays.  This fun little project will allow me to feature some of my macro work and also spur me to keep taking lots of macro images, which I love (but sometimes forget) to do.

This week's images are close-ups of purple milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) growing at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, VA that I photographed last June.  These are beautiful flowers and if you are in the area in mid-June, I highly recommend stopping by to check them out.  The one small dry "meadow" at Huntley next to the observation tower has a bunch of them.

Purple milkweed is considered endangered or of special concern in some states (although not in VA).  It attracts butterflies and many other insects, as well as occasionally hummingbirds.  Purple milkweed flowers usually have a deeper purple color than the flowers of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).  Pictured below are the unopened flower buds of the plant in varying stages of maturity and a close-up of the flowers.  Incidentally these photographs are all taken of different umbels on the same plant.