Seed Question

All,

A short time ago someone referred to white appendages(I forget the exact wording) attached to seeds of N. cyclamineus.
This is common and I remembered that these were strophioles but I wanted to check the spelling and precise definition.
It’s amazing how one question leads to another!  These notes are with apologies to the professional botanists in our midst.
I found that :-
a strophiole – is a crest like escrescence about the hilum of certain seeds, a caruncle.
a hilum – is the scar on a seed, such as a bean, indicating the point of attachmentto the funiculus
a caruncle – in Latin – a wart. In Botany, an eliasome – (a fleshy structure attached to a seed)
a funiculus in botany is a stalk connectiog an ovule or a seed with the placenta
eliasomes  – are fleshy structures that are attached to the seeds of many plant species and are rich is lipids and proteins designed to attract ants which consume the eliasomes and then       deposit the seeds in their rich and fertile refuse deposits so encouraging the seed to germinate
a placenta  – in botanical terms is the part within the ovary of the flowering plant to which the ovules,
– ultimately seeds if fertilised, are attached.

So, I guess the person who poster the question that prompted this response wishes they had never asked!
But I’ve learnt! I just thought those little strophioles were simple attachments/connectors – it never occurred to me that they may attract ants and aid dispersal of seed. How deep do the ants bury the seed?
Does this throw into question the assertions of some that to sow shallow is natural because that is where the seeds fall naturally – but maybe the ants bury them quite deep???
So thanks for the  question – and I hope the pictures provide much food for thought  – and for the ants!
Brian

 

6 comments for “Seed Question

  1. Brian,

    Thanks for the photos and the wonderful botany lesson.  I appreciate your work to help educate us.

    Dave Liedlich

    —–

  2. Wow! It’s another rainy day here in Minnesota so can’t work outside, but you really got my mind working, Brian! Fascinating stuff – I never thought ants had anything to do with seed planting before! Ethel Smith in MN

  3. One of the plants I know Brian has in his yard is the bulbous plant Leucojum vernum. It is truly one of the earliest of plants to bloom in the spring, even starting before the snowdrops. Its seed too has the appendage, and it is a fight with the ants to recover seed if you have procrastinated. I have been putting off trying to quit procrastinating, so with me the ants often win. The year I missed the splitting of the pods by one day I got mad and dug down into one of their nearby mounds and fished out 45 Leucojum seeds!
        Leucojum seed successfully harvested this year!
        And not by the ants,
         David Burdick
         Pittsfield MA
    —-

  4. I am glad you are having a rainy day. Extremely interesting and thought provoking information.
    Thanks
    By the way have you seen the latest news today about Oklahoma City’s weather? Thankful our home is on a high spot
    Sandy

  5. David,
    It seems like a win win situation! The ants got the eliasomes and you got the seeds – each of you using sharp pincers! I’ve been tweezering spilled seed in the last few days – it’s ripening faster than I can collect it at present!!
    So many seeds – so little time!
    Brian

  6. Hello Brian and everyone,
    Have been out of the country for the past 2 and a half weeks so have a lot of e-mails to catch up on. This one I can certainly relate to.
    I was making the rounds several weeks ago checking on seed pods and noted a couple of cyclaminus seed pod had split and were dropping seed on the ground. As it was late in the evening and I had no tweezers or baggies with me and it was starting to rain, I hastily collected the pods and made a neat little pile of seeds under the cyc. plant, and covered with a pot for protection from the elements and any varmints.  The plan was to return the next day with tweezers and collect my seeds. The next day I returned, removed the pot and much to my dismay and non-belief my neat little pile of seeds were gone. Even most of the ones that had already dropped were gone. The pot was intact, what possibly could have happened to the seeds? It soon dawned on me that ants were the only thing that could have moved the seeds. I carefully begin to remove the leaf litter around the area and begin to find some of the seed 12 to 18 inches away. Of course I never found all of the seed some may have been moved further or even buried in the ground. Perhaps they will sprout somewhere in the area next spring. Such is life growing daffodils, we live and learn.
    Regards,
    Larry

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