I came across this the other day and found it interesting. However, I haven’t a clue what it is. Can anybody help?

UPDATE: a friend told me the following:

Milkweed! Has a very distinctive smell, and those little feathery things burst forth and fly with the seeds. And they are essential for Monarch butterflies. Apparently toxic to some other things. But I remember them so clearly from my New Hampshire childhood, also the milky smell. We do not have them here in Switzerland. The smell of it came back to me in a very Proustian manner!

Taken with a Sony A7IV and Tamron 90mm f2.8 Macro