Our mystery seeds today come from a southwestern plant.
Similar plants occur elsewhere, however, so you might recognize the genus.
The yellow object is the seed that is inside. I peeled off the brownish coating you see on the the other two.
Do you recognize what plant these seeds are from? If you choose to, please leave a comment with your ideas.
New mystery seeds and Seed of the Week answers are posted on Tuesdays.
Edit:Â The answer is now posted.
Ever run across a photograph that made your jaw drop, and then made you ask, “How did the photographer do that?”
Take these photographs posted on Flickr by Sam Droege of the USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab, for example:
Echinocactus polycephalus – cotton top cactus seed
Echinocactus polycephalus ssp xeranthermoides
Paspalum species
Southern red oak acorn
In this case, Sam Droege offers a manual that shows the set up and process. He reveals that he uses StackShot Rail, which digitally combines a series of photographs to give that amazing all over focus. The URL address to the manual How to Take Macrophotographs of Insects BIML Lab2 is on his profile page.
Although I’m not ready to buy all the fancy equipment, these just might inspire me to try black backgrounds and pay more attention to lighting.
What do you think? Are you ready to give this technique a try?
It is not surprising that no one recognized our mystery seeds from last week, because they came from a plant that isn’t known for its seeds:Â the pineapple, Ananas comosus.
I was more than a bit surprised when I cut into a pineapple from the grocery store and there were seeds!
With a little research, it turns out that according to this article at Purdue, pineapples can produce seeds. They are used in breeding of new varieties and generally result from hand pollination. The seeds are apparently hard to germinate, which is why the commercial plants are usually propagated vegetatively.
Probably you have seen instructions for starting new pineapple plants from the tops of pineapple fruit. Our family cut off the fruit part and suspended the top in water (as shown here).
Pineapples are a type of bromeliad that grows naturally in tropical conditions. They don’t really enjoy our dry climate in Arizona.
Still, maybe someday it will flower and produce fruit.
If you are curious what the flowers look like and how pineapples are grown, the video from Dole pineapple shows more.
Have you ever found seeds in a pineapple? Have you ever grown one from a top?
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.
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