Category: Seed of the Week (Page 31 of 167)

Mystery Seed of the Week 213

July 22, 2014 / Roberta / 2 Comments

Once again, the pods may help you identify the seeds.

The pods are pretty tough.

They are often opened by birds who are trying to get at the seeds inside.

Inside the pods are numerous small seeds.

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

Thanks to the volunteers at the Desert Botanical Garden who donated these for the photograph.

New mystery seeds and Seed of the Week answers are posted on Tuesdays.

Edit: The answer is now posted.

Seed of the Week: Blue Hibiscus

July 22, 2014 / Roberta / 4 Comments

Last time our seeds were from a plant from Africa, the natal plum. This week our mystery seeds are from an Australian native: the blue hibiscus, Alyogyne huegelii.

Blue hibiscus is a large, perennial evergreen shrub that can definitely turn heads when it is flowering.

Here is Arizona it adds some bright contrast to the spring pageant of wildflowers.

The leaves are delicate, deeply lobed and covered with fine hairs.

Although called blue hibiscus, the flowers actually range in color from pink to deep purple.

What more can you say?

Blue hibiscus is easy to grow and drought tolerant. The only problem is that it can be very sensitive to some of the soil-borne fungal diseases (common in Arizona), such as Texas root rot.

Have you ever grown blue hibiscus?