This article is a follow up on the previous discussion of seeds. Fall is a busy time for seed formation and collection. The Oak trees are dropping their ripe acorns (their seeds) much to the delight of the deer, squirrels and other wildlife.
We see the most butterflies and moths in the fall. They are among the insect pollinators that move the pollen on flowers to fertilize the egg that makes the seeds. Some seeds come with a fleshy covering like apple seeds and some come with a dry capsule.
We often talk about plants that volunteer. We say they self seed. This process is very obvious with our native lantana. The end of September we had a wonderful flowering display of our lantana. The butterflies, bees and hornets were among the insects that visited the lantana flowers to pollinate them.. Now, if you go out and examine the ends of the lantana you will find berry-likefruits that have seeds within them. These berries start out green in color and eventually turn dark. Not until the berry turns dark are the seeds within ripe and capable of germinating, thus forming a new plant. A volunteer plant.
The fleshy covering of the seed, which we call a berry, attracts birds who eat them and then deposit them when they defecate in far away places. That is possibly why you might suddenly have a lantana bush in your yard that you did not plant.
Other berries that are noticeable this month are the bright purple berries on the American Beauty Berry and the Pyracantha berries that will turn a bright orange-red.
If you are going to collect seeds for the seed bank at the library it is important to collect RiPE SEEDS because if they are not ripe they will not germinate. Enjoy our cooler mornings and observe the busy fall natural season.
by Jackie Mattice Hays County Master Naturalist
