It looked like the honey bee had one leg caught tight in the milkweed flower. I watched as it struggled to free itself, its wings buzzing, its legs waving.

It managed to escape! Carrying the milkweed’s yellow sacs of pollen, called pollinia, which are held together in pairs by a dark stringy structure.

Some insects do not escape, and I saw a number of milkweed flowers with the bodies of trapped dead flies.