Category: Seed of the Week (Page 158 of 167)

Seed of the Week: Filaree

Are you ready to find out what those twisty seed pods were from?

filaree-flower

Would you believe this delicate, lovely flower produced them? This plant is called filaree, or sometimes heron’s bill or stork’s bill (Genus Erodium).

Why heron’s bill?

filaree-seedpods

Don’t the developing fruit look like bird beaks?

filaree-seedpod-dried

As the seed structures dry, they twist and drill the seed into the ground.

You can actually get the filaree to drive itself into bread (check Kaweah Oaks Preserve for how to do this fun activity).

We discovered another species while we were in California.

california-filaree

The fruit of this kind are shorter.

According to one source I read, these plants were brought over from Europe by the early Spanish explorers.

Do you have filaree where you live?

Seed of the Week: Desert Willow

The mystery seeds last week

mystery-seed-17

came from a plant with a beautiful flower.

willowflower

desert-willow-flower1

This lovely flower is from a desert willow tree, Chilopsis linearis. Although the leaves are long and narrow like a willow, the tree is actually a close relative of the catalpa. We covered the catalpa in an earlier seed of the week post. If you check that post, you can see how similar the flowers are.

Our desert willow is a favorite with birds and bees when it is flowering. Even the giant, lumbering green June beetles visit the flowers for nectar and pollen.

Here in Arizona you commonly see desert willows growing along washes. It is a native plant, but is also used extensively in landscapes. Desert willows will bloom throughout the spring and summer, although they will quit flowering during dry spells.

For further information see The University of Arizona’s Master Gardener Journal

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