Presumably you have put together a bunch of good wildlife photos this long weekend. Well, we need ’em, so please send them in. Thanks!
Today’s batch comes from Rik Gern of Austin, Texas, who sends us photos of seeds and seed pods. Rik’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
I’ve got some seeds and seed pods for you today. The pictures of seed pods were taken on a walk around the block last January before the plants were in bloom:
Crape Myrtle (Lagersrtoemia ‘Natchez’) is usually known by its extravagant frilly, petticoat-like flowers, but here are the rustic seed pods. (1&2) They are not as flamboyant as the flower, but attractive in their own right.
The pointed tips of the Red Yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) pods make them a good companion to the rest of the plant with it’s stiff, aggressively pointed leaves. (3) The seeds in these pods are just starting to get exposed.
Unlike the Crepe Myrtle and the Red Yucca, the pods of the Mexican Buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa) hang down from the branch. They make me think of some ancient bells. The smooth polished look of the seeds contrasts nicely with the rough hewn, weathered look of the pod casing:
The next two examples come straight from the grocery store.
Here are a few seeds from a Red Delicious apple (Malus domestica). Their host was delicious!:
These Cantaloupe Melon (Cucumis melo) seeds (first photo below) made me think of textbook illustrations I saw of cell division when I was in school, so I did some digital daydreaming in the multiverse called Photoshop and played around until this emerged. I call it “Kaleidoscopic Mitosis” (second photo below):
Great pix and a lovely transformation! My mom collected similar seed pods and then drew them, so this was a nice remembrance for me.