The Washington Post recently had this interactive piece with quite beautiful photos of seeds of native plants in California. It made me wonder if anyone else has an affinity for any seeds of plants native to their areas?
I have two, both native to Mexico. The first is the ceiba tree (Ceiba pentandra), for when it is their seed season, it looks almost like snow. The seeds themselves are small, black and simple, but each single seed is enveloped in a large, circular cushion of cottony fibers, which we call kapok, and these seed globes blow and roll everywhere, creating seed drifts. Ceiba trees are glorious, tall shade trees that are common here so the seed season is quite a thing to see, however these seeds need to be attended to quickly for they root firmly and the trunks have spikes. Here you can see pictures of what the seeds and seeding looks like; scroll toward the bottom, as the page shows full ceiba life cycle.
My other favorite seed is catstongue (Priva lappulacea). This one I mentioned here before, because I am lowkey obsessed with how the little pods adhere to everything. One of my dogs frequently looks like this after running through the garden.
Inside each, I mentioned then, is a tiny, peppery thing I thought might be the seed, but @m_whitson encouraged me to try cutting inside (no small feat, they are tiny) and it appears these were fruits each hold arrayed seeds. I am too clumsy to extract them well or whole given the wee size, for which I apologize. Shown is half, so I guess there are four of the world’s teeniest seeds inside the cool peppery fruit inside the sticky outer skin, which is so elaborate for such a tiny flower, I just love it madly.
I love Calirhoe involucrata seeds, they are so funky looking. They look and feel like little slices of wood.
I also love Spiderwort seeds, they look like a tribal token or something ancient looking!
And those seeds turn into this tree!? I realize that all organisms begin as impossibly tiny bits of stuff, but I’ll still never get over the idea that massive trees start off as small seeds.
And when I clicked through, I realized that this is what I know as the Kapok tree, and those wonderful seed pods make great pillows!
I have to vote for Virgin’s-Bower, Clematis virginiana. The masses of seed heads are spectacular. They often persist through early winter and when they’re covered in frost or ice they’re just breathtaking.
And my thanks to your dog for giving me a good laugh.
This is hard because I can’t really think of that many seeds by themselves (as in: without the fruit). I always liked the seeds of Malva sp. Especially the way they fit together to form a doughnut shape. :D
My favourite overall, although non-native, are passion fruit seeds with their little dimples. And Ricinus is also very pretty.
@giannamaria I am so sorry, by Milkweeds do you mean Subfamily Asclepiadoideae or Genus Asclepias or Genus Calotropis or something else entirely? What you posted is beautiful and reminds me of feathers almost, so prettily arrayed. I wanted to look up more but am well stymied by my lack of knowledge.
I still remember discovering maple seeds as a kid. Those and ash seeds are my favorites around here.
When I am in the Dominican Republic, my favorites are the variety of “sea beans” that accumulate on beaches – especially the sea heart, mucuna, and jobo.
Genus Asclepias is the one I am thinking of. I just looked up ‘milkweed seeds’ and got a lot of different images. The pods when they are green and not dried yet look really cool too:
And yes, they are seeds. The recommendations are to snip the ends off with scissors for scarification before soaking them for germination, which makes their little roots poke out:
This is an awesome topic: appreciating an aspect of plants that people seldom think about. It reminds me of another of my Dominican favorites: Eleutheranthera ruderalis. Under my loupe, they looked like ancient Greek amphorae (but without handles).
Other inconspicuous, “weedy” Asteraceae in the same region exhibit heterospermy, that is, two kinds of seeds in the same flower head. This one is nodeweed. Strangely, I have several times seen observations of Eleutheranthera ruderalis misidentified as nodeweed, despite that nodeweed has ray flowers and Eleutheranthera does not.
