In late summer, our writer found herself in some marshy fields of her native Minnesota. By chance of the wind, a dollop of a fluffy, down-like substance floated into her path; intrigued, she was informed that it was the fluffy interior of a milkweed plant seed pod. She proceeded to collect and dry milkweed pods, and explore the super-soft interior. She wondered why the textile industry has not embraced this prolific, fast-growing weed as a fiber source. Here, an exploration. Milkweed in brief Considered a “weed” and underappreciated by most, milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is the only food source for monarch larvae and caterpillars. But the butterflies might be onto something—(unsurprising, considering the effortless beauty of the winged insect, whose color and artistry manmade fashion can only hope to mimic)—this flora may be a highly undervalued plant to the fashion, fiber, and textile industries because of its soft, silky, pillowy seeds which resemble unspun cotton. Inside of a milkweed seed pod are hundreds of individual white fibers that, while impressively soft, are also durable, hollow, and buoyant, as well as naturally wax-coated, water-resistant, and hypoallergenic. The seeds are similar in structure to goose down—and it turns out, the value of milkweed seed as an insulating material has been recognized for decades. According to Mother Earth News, during America's colonial days, silky milkweed fibers were used to stuff pillows and comforters. And during World War II, school children collected the pods for use in military life jackets. Since then, however, the use of this plant pod’s potential has declined, and despite the prolificness, (see map below) of this naturally occurring, cotton-like substance, the plant is largely ignored. A seemingly abundant plant, milkweed grows all over the United States, as well as in Canada. Map courtesy of the University of Kansas publication, “The potential of milkweed floss as a natural fiber in the textile industry,” by Julia Nehring Textile Potential In 2013, Julia Nehring, a dedicated Sustainability Analyst at ESG and Sustainability consulting firm Governance & Accountability Institute, performed research at the University of Kansas on the potential of milkweed floss as a natural fiber in the textile industry. Nehring realized that as a fiber, milkweed fluff is too brittle and too silky to spin on its own. She experimented by adding milkweed to wool fibers (see results in below image) but also concluded that milkweed fluff and cotton fibers are more similar in size, so it may actually be easier to spin milkweed and cotton together than milkweed and wool.
Imagine, what if milkweed could supplement cotton? Unlike cotton, which requires extensive irrigation and pesticide abuse, milkweed seems to grow happily on its own. Hence its nickname weed—a term that implies stubborn resilience despite low maintenance. It could lessen our demand for the massive production of cotton. It remains to be seen if milkweed can hold dye. Therefore, it might require additional chemicals to achieve dyeability and colorfastness, which would cancel out the naturalness of the finished fibers. However, as a filling, milkweed fiber could be a fantastic alternative to down—which for vegan or other ethical concerns would pose as a promising shift in sourcing. (Down is usually a byproduct of the meat industry, and questions of its sustainability persist among the highly discerning.) Back in 1979, Mother Earth News espoused that DIY/at-home sewers can make their own milkweed-insulated jackets for much less than the cost of traditional down jackets. To these makers, an article proposes: “You don't have to spend $20 a pound for goose down—or even know much about the intricacies of stitchery—to make a jacket, an inexpensive, toasty parka. First, however, you'll have to locate a plot of land that contains a big patch of milkweed plants (genus Asclepias). Then—just before the first hard frost—gather a few grocery bags full of the perennials' seedpods. These will yield a pound or more of lightweight, water-resistant insulation to help protect you against the coming winters chilling snow, ice, and bluenose winds. ...milkweed plants can be located in any number of fields, fence rows, railroad right-of-ways, and vacant lots. Or—if you'd like a large supply of the seedpods and have a little extra land—you could even collect enough wild seeds this year to establish your very own milkweed farm!”
That said, it’s not as simple as it sounds to develop a new, usable, salable crop. But this challenge didn’t stop entrepreneurs Herbert D. Knudsen and Richard D. Zeller from embracing milkweed as an alternative filling in the late 1980s when they determined its silky “floss” could be produced for $17/kg, a price comparable to traditional goose down. In their report, “The Milkweed Business,” they confirm that “the down market is a high-value use of milkweed floss. Down prices of $20 to 70/kg were expected to support floss prices of $15 to 30/kg”:
The market value of milkweed fibers in various forms, published by Knudsen and Zeller and cited by Nehring Despite these numbers (or rather likely because of the current lack of milkweed farms), the fashion industry has not embraced the weed’s potential. Finding the outerwear market oversaturated with established brands, Knudsen and Zeller moved away from coat products and focused instead on milkweed floss-stuffed bedding. In the early 1990s, they discovered that public approval of alternative fibers was still developing: “touting comforters containing milkweed floss did not result in significant customer acceptance,” they write. Nonetheless, in their second year of comforter sales, they achieved almost a five-fold increase in sales to a little over $100,000. Today, their company Ogallala Comfort continues to make luxurious bedding using 30% milkweed fluff and 70% ethically sourced goose down. On milkweed as a branding element, they summarized, in 1993: “Milkweed has a positive image, but the name "weed" detracts from peoples' positive reaction to the product. Floss is a natural vegetable fiber and not an animal byproduct. Environmentally, milkweed is attractive because it is grown in low-impact agriculture or collected from native stands. Milkweed is a plant known to consumers. In a national survey, 59% of those surveyed in the United States were familiar with the plant. Milkweed provides habitat for Monarch butterflies; it is the subject of extensive native American lore, foods and medicines; and milkweed is the subject of many artists renditions of Autumn.” It’s likely that today’s apparel customers would embrace milkweed as a stuffing in their jackets if it proved itself a more sustainable or innovative option than down, and especially if it lowered the cost of insulated items. While numerous companies create capsule collections out of sustainably sourced materials like recycled plastics or recycled natural fibers, maybe a milkweed experiment is worth investing in. Most recently, the feasibility of milkweed as jacket stuffing is being tested by a researcher at the University of Montana, whose resulting grant-winning creations are sold under her startup fashion label May West. Perhaps someday soon, milkweed will be [re]added to the list of all-natural textile and material innovations alongside pineapple leather, mushroom leather, apple leather, fabric made of milk, and cactus leather, to name a few. Consider the monarch As an industry already guilty of overusing resources, we do NOT want to exhaust or deplete the monarch butterfly’s only food supply. Monarchs are reputably endangered species, as deforestation destroys their habitats; suffering fewer places to live, the worst that could happen to the species would be a reduction in the supply of their original food source. Indeed, Nehring warns: “Milkweed’s numbers are declining as people use herbicides to get rid of it, even though they are not particularly unsightly plants. Another source of peril to milkweed is the conversion of land to make room for monoculture crop production. This means replacing milkweed and other native perennials with row after row of one crop and using herbicides to kill off any native plant that might pop back up. No matter what the cause, its numbers are declining, thus putting the monarch migration in danger.”
Were the industry to attempt to grow its own milkweed for the purpose of harvesting cheaper down-filling alternatives, it’s possible that monarch populations would flock to and begin to depend on these crops. Any uncareful harvesting of the plant seeds would only further starve the beautiful butterflies—but there is a way to harvest the milkweed seeds only after the monarchs have eaten their fill and left for Mexico. Ogallala Down claims that their bedding is helping Monarchs survive the destruction of their natural habitats throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada, stating: “As the world’s largest supplier of wild-crafted, sustainably harvested milkweed products and raw materials, we are helping create a larger demand. Monarch butterflies will only lay their eggs on milkweed plants. And as land in the US has been cultivated for farming or developed for housing, the reduction in the milkweed supply has made the Monarchs’ future an uncertain one. By encouraging the growth of milkweed, we’re aiming to support a sustainable habitat for the Monarchs for many generations to come.” Could this be a stellar albeit overlooked model of positive symbiotic sourcing?