The Queen Anne’s lace flower umbels have transformed into small baskets of seeds. All the spiky seeds cradled together have a spirit bursting with excitement—they are saying, “We are ready to go!” For dispersal across the landscape, the tiny, brown seeds are covered with burs. They will grab on to the fur of passing animals that brush up against them. This includes people too. There always seems to be a couple stuck on my pants or in my shoelaces.
Pacific Ninebark seeds
Many of the pacific nine bark shrubs are loaded with clusters of seed pods. The pods have dried out and are splitting open to release their seeds. I squeezed one of the clusters a few times and small seeds came pouring out. They were smooth and a little shiny.
Several sources state that this plant is poisonous or toxic. I was unable to find any mention of the seeds being a food source for any animals, such as birds, mice, ants, etc. Although recently, I did find a pacific ninebark shrub down by the river that had been chewed by a beaver.
I’ll keep watching to see what animals are interacting with this plant.
Downy Woodpecker & Mullein
Downy woodpeckers can often be seen on the flower stalks of mullein this time of year. The yellow flowers steadily open throughout the season starting at the bottom and moving upward as the stalk grows. So you can see flowers blooming on top of the stalk, fuzzy green seed pods along the middle and older pods turning brown at the bottom. The woodpeckers are opening the pods and extracting small larvae inside that appear to be eating the seeds.
As I investigated a couple mullein stalks, I found they were attracting a surprising number of insects and spiders. I encountered a goldenrod crab spider, a daddy-long-legs, grasshoppers, aphids, weevils, caterpillars, honey bees, native bees and wasps all on a couple plants. My guess is that the woodpecker is taking the opportunity to sample a few of them along the way.
Manroot Seeds
The manroot vines were very prominent earlier in the summer as they wove their way up through the understory or created thick blankets on the ground. As the leaves and vines have dried up, they have visually receded. I have been poking around trying to find one of the fruits. Manroot is a native perennial in the gourd family, so I wanted to see what the fruit looked and felt like as it matured. Surprisingly, it was hard to find one, but I finally discovered one hanging in an osoberry shrub.
The small fruit pod was splitting open and the seeds were starting to spill out. The seeds have a look and feel of small, weathered river stones. The are round and flat with a slight curve. They were pleasant to handle as I rolled them around in my hand listening to them tumble against each other.
One of the interesting things I noticed was that the leaves, vines and tendrils of the plant were all crispy dry. However, the brown, fibrous gourd shown in the second photo that contained the seeds was still moist. It looks papery and dry in the photo, but it is actually still damp and spongy.
The dried leaves were captivating as they hung from the vines like wrinkled, folded capes. They were curiously covered in small dots. I feel that plants take on another fascinating life and energy as their color, shape and texture transform as they die.
Douglas-fir seeds
This Douglas-fir tree laden with cones was a frenzy of activity yesterday. Black-capped chickadees, chestnut-backed chickadees, pine siskins and red-breasted nuthatches were busily harvesting the seeds in the warmth of the late afternoon sun. The chickadees and nuthatches seemed more interested in stashing the seeds, while the pine siskins were eating them.
It is interesting to note how long the seeds stay in the cones once they are mature. It seems like the tree is holding onto to them as a food resource for animals for the winter. Likewise, as the birds were foraging, many of the seeds were dislodged and were whirling through the air to the ground. It’s as if the birds were sowing seeds for future generations. The woody cones are well designed to protect the seeds from the weather. I investigated some seeds that fell to the ground, and they were in excellent condition.
