Category: Seed of the Week (Page 20 of 167)

Mystery Seed of the Week 230

December 16, 2014 / Roberta / 3 Comments

Our mystery seeds this week hardly look like seeds.

The seed pods with immature seeds looks more like it is filled with insects or mites.

Here’s a seed pod opened up somewhat.

The mature seed is reddish-brown one with distinct ridges towards the center of the photo. Doesn’t it look like an insect grub? Mealy bug? Nope, that is a seed.

Do you recognize what plant these insect-like seeds are from? If you choose to, please leave a comment with your ideas.

Mystery seed answers and new Mystery seeds are posted on Tuesdays.

Edit: The answer is now posted.

Seed of the Week: Butter-and-Eggs

December 16, 2014 / Roberta / 0 Comments

Our mystery seeds from last week (229) were from a plant known by several common names, including butter-and-eggs and common toadflax. The scientific name is Linaria vulgaris.

The common name butter-and-eggs comes from the lovely yellow and orange color of the snapdragon-like flowers.

Common toadflax is a relatively small perennial with delicate leaves. It is originally from Europe-Northern Asia and escaped cultivation in North America. It is considered to be an invasive weed, particularly of pastureland, in several states.

(Public domain photo by Steve Hurst, hosted by the USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database.)

In addition to the papery wings around the seeds, they also have warty bumps that can be seen under a microscope.

Although considered to be a weed by some, I do have fond memories of “snapping” open the flowers by pinching them in a manner similar to snapdragons when I was a child.