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Although this could very well be a picture of me finding a new treasure at a favorite nursery, it's actually an illustration by David Catrow for a children's book called Plantzilla.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

A Seedy Post

O.K. it's not what you think.  Well, maybe it is... You do realize that flowers are the reproductive organs of plants, right?  We seem to be fascinated by plant sex.   Why is it that we are so fascinated by flowers?  Why are we attracted to floral fragrances?  I get that insects, bats, and birds are attracted to blooms because of the nectar but what evolutionary purpose would human attraction to fragrance serve?  Found a couple of interesting thoughts here and here . One of my favorite and oft quoted lines comes from Michelle at Garden Porn, "Is that a pistil in your calyx or are you just happy to see me?"

The following  shows the result of unprotected plant sex in a factual and explicit manner.  You have been warned.

This summer, one of my brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldis' bloomed it's everloving head off.  It was in a plant stand that made it look much taller than it really was but it was magic to walk beneath those large golden fragrant trumpets!  I noticed that a seed pod was forming on a branch that was out of reach and being too lazy to haul out a ladder or pull the plant down for this single operation, I left the pod.  A few days ago, I removed the plant from the outside stand to bring it inside for the winter and decided to remove the pod. I probably should have let it stay on longer to ripen the seeds but I wasn't thinking about that, just wanted to explore the seed pod.  One of the  differences between daturas and brugmansias is the shape of their seed pods.  Those of datura resemble spiky horse chestnut seed pods or medieval flails while brugmansias look alittle like long okra and are smooth.


Because I'm so selfish, I plucked the thing without thinking of you at all.  It wasn't until after I twisted it open to discover what the contents looked like that I thought that maybe y'all might like a peek, too.  The pictues show it smushed back together, sorry I'm such a pig.
And now pulled apart.  For many of you, this may be old news but I'd never seen brugsmansia seeds before so it was kind of fun for me.  I'm easily entertained.
Do these seeds look like brains?    Maybe the darker ones have matured enough to be viable?  Could be fun to start brugs from seed and see what happens.  Have you ever tried?
I hope this post wasn't too jarring to the more refined and genteel  among us. 
 
My thoughts are with all who are affected by the damage caused by Sandy! 

18 comments:

  1. These seeds look like small shells or corals, I think! I have no brugmansia in my garden and hope they ripened for the next year.

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    1. I see the resemblance to shells and corals. Thanks for that image which is much nicer than brains. Thank you.

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      Delete
  2. I'd never seen a Brugmansia seed pod before and your comparison to Okra is perfect. A few years ago I did have a Datura seed pod break open and scatter it's seeds around, sadly some creature ate the seedlings before they could mature. I wonder if they felt any effects from munching on a toxic hallucinogen?

    Good luck with your seedy project...

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    1. I bet a group of slugs were having a party & ate your datura babies - Probably got the munchies and ate more things as well. There are too many brugmansias at my place already and seedlings would probably take a couple of years to bloom but they were fun to look at.

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  3. Fun! It does look like okra - which brings me the warm fuzzies. Now I'm craving fried okra and or gumbo.

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    1. This soggy day would be great to stay home and cook gumbo. Hope you can.

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  4. You seed glutton! Thanks for thinking of us -- especially me. I'm fascinated by the promiscuous and lusty behavior of plants too.

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    1. Suspicion confirmed! Glad you enjoyed things on the seedy side.

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  5. Sex education at its steamy best.
    Someone at the Plant Lust swap had grown Amaryllis from seed. Had to take one home as a science project...still pretty small...who know if it will ever bloom.

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    1. Amaryllis from seed sounds like a fun science project and could make an interesting series of posts - Through the years with Amy?
      Still kicking myself for not being able to come to the Plant Lust swap as I heard it was lots of fun.

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  6. Just the thought of all that scopolamine makes my pupils dilate with horror! Too bad slugs don't metabolise the stuff like humans do.

    Such charismatic plants.

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    Replies
    1. I understand tha a little scopolamine can be an enjoyable experience but am too much of a wimp to try it, satisfying myself instead with the euphoric fragrance.

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  8. So, you raise brains! That's science...;O)

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    Replies
    1. Yes, we gardeners can now supply Dr. Frankenstein with all the brains he desires! Just think what this could do for brain hungry zombies everywhere. :-)

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  9. Well that's cool, I've grown brugs for years and even wrote an article for Fine Gardening about them this year but have never seen a seed pod because I'm such an OCD deadheader. ARe you going to try germinating the seed? Would be interesting to see what it produced

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    1. Don't know if the seed was ripened enough before I plucked the pod but I may try just to see if they germinate.

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Thanks so much for taking the time to comment! I love to hear your thoughts.