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Tag Archives: autumn seeds

300/365 Next year’s wildflowers

27 Sunday Oct 2019

Posted by sconzani in autumn, nature, plants, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

autumn seeds, plant seeds, quotes about seeds, seed quotations, seeds

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‘For me, wildflowers are joy-giving. They have enriched my life and fed my soul and given beautiful memories to sustain me.’  ~  Lady Bird Johnson letter in National Wildflower Research Center report ‘The First Ten Years: 1983-1993’

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A seed waits

10 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by sconzani in autumn, nature, plants

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Tags

autumn seeds, flower seeds, plant seeds, seed quotations, seeds

‘A seed knows how to wait. Most seeds wait for at least a year before starting to grow; a cherry seed can wait for a hundred years with no problem. What exactly each seed is waiting for is known only to that seed. Some unique trigger-combination of temperature-moisture-light and many other things is required to convince a seed to jump off the deep end and take its chance – to take its one and only chance to grow.’
~ Hope Jahren, Lab Girl

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Psychedelic seeds

14 Saturday Oct 2017

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds, nature, trees

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

autumn colour, autumn fruit, autumn seeds, Euonymus europaea, fruit, orange seeds, pink fruit, seeds, Spindle

I’m still pretty useless at identifying native British trees: I can get most of the more common big species, like Oak and Ash and Beech, but I probably couldn’t identify a Spindle if you paid me … except at this time of year. Because in the autumn, the Spindle (Euonymus europaea) lights up in psychedelic colours that remind me of a dress I had in the ’70s (yes, I am that old!).

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The Spindle (so named because its wood was used to make the spindles used to hold wool and in spinning) has fruits that are hot pink. And not only that … when those fruits open up, the seed inside is bright orange. It’s such an outrageous colour combination that it makes me wonder why it’s so very bright … and I haven’t found the answer. I thought perhaps the orange was a way to attract birds and many websites say the seeds are eaten by small birds like Robins and Tits but, when I google images, I can’t find any showing birds actually eating them. The other alternative is that the colour is a ‘don’t touch me I’m poisonous’ warning – and certainly the fruits are poisonous to humans but to birds? If anyone has any information about this eye-popping colour combination, I’d love to hear it. Meantime, put on your shades and check out these psychedelics, man.

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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