Thursday, November 29, 2007

Trip to Bountiful


Bounty of seeds, Odessa, Texas


I went again to the Master Gardener's garden to take pictures. While there, I picked up a few seed pods. As I was leaving, I laid them on the inside of my jacket and admired the nice composition they made. I'm not sure I would have thought of taking a picture if I hadn't been inspired by a recent post by Lisa Sarsfield.

The long pods are from a Yellow Bells plant (Tecoma stans var angustata), more commonly called Esperanza ("Hope" in Spanish) around here.

The big, single pod is from a Mexican Buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa), native to Texas. Inside it had three beautiful black perfectly round hard seeds, just the right size to make beads for a necklace, as I'm sure was done in days of yore.

The other two, I don't know. They weren't marked, or the markers have disappeared.

The little black seeds came from the umbrella-shaped seed head, and the plant was small with thick grass-like leaves similar to a liriope.

My favorite, though, were the green bean pods. They are from a tree and hang in all these strange configurations. When I got home, I pulled back the flesh of one to dig out the black rectangular seed inside. The green outer stuff was like, well, like old sticky boogers. Jorge and I had a good laugh about it, especially since he has a wicked cold right now. For a couple of old farts, we can be so immature. I hope that story hasn't ruined the pretty picture for anyone.

7 comments:

Rima said...

I thought it was snow on the ground! great, stark image - very design-y

lebanesa said...

Snap! That tecoma grows in Cyprus, too, and is beautiful. One of my birthday presents to my Dad was a tecoma which we planted together on his birthday. Love the picture. The thumbnail was reminiscent of the picture of your beautiful dog.

Bev said...

Well, you got me laughing (though you have slightly lowered the tone!). I thought of Lisa's picture too when I was scrolling down. This makes a lovely still life, and it is always very interesting to find out about all the species which are new to me.

Bobbie said...

ooohh...I love these seed pods, so interesting! The green ones are a mystery to me too, but I know the black triangle ones are Chinese Chives :) Plant them and they will reward you with edible leaves, buds and flowers. Otherwise they are just beautiful to look at when they bloom in late summer.

Love this photo, dear Debi!

Lucky Dip Lisa said...

Oh, I just want to touch them! Great photo Debi! Those lovely long 'fingery' looking brown pods remind me of ciniamin sticks.The black (dark green?) pod is also very touchable. I like the contrast of the synthetic background againts the natural items and the way that the jacket isn't flat allowing that little ridge of light to lead your eye to the other items of the photo instead of just looking at the bigger group of seeds. I am glad you were inspired by my post as I am by yours!

Thankyou for the booger description btw! lol and for better defining 'verge' for me. I nearly fell of my seat laughing and now I am NEVER going to look at another verge again without thinking of the male organ of copulation in certain invertebrates!!!

Irene said...

You made a pretty composition to take a picture off and I thought the background was a textured wall and I thought, "How artfully arranged that is."

You have such exotic plants there compared to here in the Netherlands. Things I have never heard off. It sure sounds intriguing and makes me want to see them.

Debi said...

Rima, you are right. Even Jorge, who is not artistic minded, thought the seeds from plants around here would make a good poster. Huh. Good idea, that.

Frances, how amazing! A little bit of serendipity. I'm guessing "Snap!" is sort of like "Jinx!" when two people say the same thing at the same time?

Bev, well it's about time I made you laugh -- you've given me enough good laughs it's only fair.

Mom, I can always count on you to help out with plant identification. :) I'll have to make a call to the big guns (county extension agent or Master Gardeners) for the green boogery one, I guess.

Lisa, thank you for insight about the background. I'll have to make a mental note about that. (As I do about things I see and learn when I'm looking at your photographs, for example.) I know what you mean about "verge" -- I won't be able to say I'm on the verge of something quite so readily again!

Irene, I bet you do too have exotic plants in The Netherlands. It's just they are common to YOU. Most of the plants and things I've share here on my blog I have looked at for so long they seem ordinary to me. It's fun to share them with others and see them anew.