Tag: Seed of the Week (Page 132 of 142)

Seed of the Week: Birdhouse Gourds

Did you guess what plant these mystery seeds came from?

mystery-seed-33

Here’s a few more hints:

birdhouse-gourd-flowerbirdhouse-gourd-plant

Do you recognize it yet? These are the flowers and vines of the birdhouse gourd, Lagenaria siceraria.

We had never grown them before, so we were surprised to find out the white flowers opened at night. Apparently they are moth pollinated.

birdhouse-gourd-female-flower

Like their relatives the squashes and pumpkins, birdhouse gourds have separate male and female flowers. The female flowers have a rounded bump under the petals.

birdhouse-gourd-male-flower

The male flowers lack the bulge.

Hopefully we have enough moths to pollinate the flowers and produce some of these:

gourds

By the way, these plants trail everywhere, so if you decide to grow them, make sure you have a lot of space.

Have you grown birdhouse gourds?

Seed of the Week: Bottle Trees

Did you recognize the bottle tree seeds last week?

bottle-tree-seeds

Then you might be from Australia, where the bottle trees, Brachychiton populneus, are from originally. Here in the Sonoran desert we grow them as landscape trees.

The seeds form in these boat-like pods that are fascinating to children. Watch out though, they are filled with irritating, itchy hairs.

bottleflower

The flowers of the bottle tree are bell-shaped.

bottle-tree-3

The tree gets its common name from its odd growth habit when young. Often the top is narrow and then it spreads out like a bottle.

bottle-tree-2

Here in Arizona the shape is incredibly variable.

bottle-tree-1

They do tend to fill in nicely when mature.

The leaf shape is also extremely variable, ranging from round to triangular to having three sharp points. Mostly the leaves resemble a poplar, hence the species name, populneus.

bottle-tree-leaves

Have you seen a bottle tree?

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