Common Milkweed, Anselmus Boëtius de Boodt, 1596 - 1610
brush, h 243mm × w 161mm More details
This drawing of a milkweed plant was certainly not done from life. Various stages of flowering, which in reality never occur at the same time, are shown simultaneously on a single branch. The plant bears both flowers and seedpods. It is more a generic image of the milkweed than a portrait of a specific specimen. De Boodt did this deliberately to facilitate identification.
