29th
January 2004
Mystery seed pods solved! |
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| Seed
pods pictured next to a biro top for scale |
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BBC
Suffolk's gardening experts have been trying to solve the mystery
of these seed pods.
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They
had been causing a bit of a problem for Lesley Dolphin and Ric Staines
on BBC Radio Suffolk's gardening hour, which is broadcast at 8am
on Saturday mornings.
We asked for your help and lots of suggestions came in via the telephone
and email.
We can now reveal the answer!
Ric
Staines:
"The pods were originally sent in by Jean Morrison of Rushmere
St Andrew. They were in her son's garden on a 'small tree, 5-6
foot high'.
"The second set of pods was sent in by Carol. They were
from a Wisteria, and whilst being a bit bigger were the same
colour and furry like the originals, hence the positive identification.
"I would have suggested Wisteria if the plant description
was a climber not a tree. Which specific Wisteria is impossible
to say but the common one is Wisteria Sinensis.
"Knowing whether it twines clockwise or anti-clockwise
would help species identification!!" |
We
received lots of other suggestions including:
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Is
there any chance that the seed pods could be "Decaisnea
madagascariensis" RHS A-Z Plant guide page 349 I know
that the picture shows blue but thats not dried.
Rusty
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Looking
on the BBC Suffolk website at the seed pods, and after some
further research in some books of mine. I suggest that they
could be a type of Broom. They appear to be the right colour
and size, and Broom seed pods do nave a covering of downy
fur.
Another suggestion is Lupin. It all depends on the colour
of the fur on them. Broom is brown and that on the Lupin is,
I believe more silvery grey.
from Graham of Ipswich
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The
seeds shown seem to be very similar to some wisteria seeds
we collected over the past 2 or 3 years.The larger ones were
from Brittany and the smaller from our own plant in Lt. Saxham
last year. I am trying to send you a photo of them. The larger
are about 13/15cms and the smaller unopened one is 11cms.
Hope this helps.
Anne & Derek Turner
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could
these seed pods be Wisteria?
Terry Galley Soham
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Lesley
and Ric's Gardening Hour is broadcast at 8am on Saturday mornings.
95.5, 95.9, 103.9, 104.6 FM
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