Can you imagine, the seeds in the bit of fluff from last week’s mystery seed can grow into one of the tallest eastern hardwoods?
This is the eastern cottonwood, Populus deltoides.
The species name comes from the “deltoid” shape of the leaves.
Cottonwoods often grow near water.
They have deeply grooved, braided bark.
In the fall the leaves turn a gorgeous golden yellow.
This last photograph is from here in Arizona.
Do cottonwoods grow where you live?
Did you identify the mystery seeds last week as sunflower seeds?
In fact they were the black oil sunflower seeds sold as bird food. Those grow pretty easily.
Did you know sunflowers were originally from the New World? There are about 80 different species, including the so-called Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus. The wild kinds often have many small flowers, and many are perennials.
The lesser goldfinches were having a field day in these sunflowers.
There are a lot of different varieties of annual sunflowers (Helianthus annuus).
This is a Lemon Queen, grown for the Great Sunflower Project last year.
Many animals benefit from the flowers and seeds.
Many bees and other insects enjoy the pollen and nectar from the flowers.
Of course, people enjoy eating sunflower seeds, too. Have you ever had sunflower seed butter? It is a nice change of pace from peanut butter.
Sunflowers are cool because the buds of some varieties follow the sun throughout the day. As the flowers start to produce seed, however, I’ve noticed that they tend to stop moving. Often they begin to drop downwards.
Here in Arizona sunflowers will grow throughout the year and they are pretty drought tolerant, too.
Have you grown sunflowers? What varieties are your favorites?
If not, you should give them a try.
The round blue mystery seeds from last week were juniper “berries.”
Although they look like berries, they are actually female cones. If you look just to the left of the top row of three cones, you can see the seed that is normally inside the cone. You can also see a few dead leaves.
Junipers have scale-like leaves.
Junipers grow in the mountains of Arizona. One of the most popular is the so-called alligator juniper, which has unusual bark that forms rectangular patches. Oneseed junipers and Utah junipers are also common. Another name for the Utah juniper is shaggybark juniper, which is what this one appears to be.
Note:
Seed of the Week is going on hiatus for a few weeks as I think about the direction it should take. Please leave me a comment if you enjoy Seed of the Week and would like to see it continue as a weekly feature. Also, please let me know if you have any ideas how it could be improved.
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.
© 2025 Growing With Science Blog
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑