Hi does anyone recognize this seed I found it laying on the top of my garden
soil this morning. It is possible that it has been there for sometime, or
that it has arrived recently. The freezing weather and fact that I have
nothing in my garden that would produce a seed of this size leaves me
puzzled as to what it is, where it has come from and of course how it has
managed to root in the freezing temperatures of the last month or so. At
it's longest points it is 30mm long and 20mm wide, and quite hard to the
touch. (I have of course potted it up)
MBS

http://spaces.msn.com/members/MrBlue...c02_owner=1&_c

"MrBlueSkye" wrote in message
...
Hi does anyone recognize this seed I found it laying on the top of my
garden soil this morning. It is possible that it has been there for
sometime, or that it has arrived recently. The freezing weather and fact
that I have nothing in my garden that would produce a seed of this size
leaves me puzzled as to what it is, where it has come from and of course
how it has managed to root in the freezing temperatures of the last month
or so. At it's longest points it is 30mm long and 20mm wide, and quite
hard to the touch. (I have of course potted it up)
MBS

http://spaces.msn.com/members/MrBlue...c02_owner=1&_c



It looks like an avocado- someone has grown it in a pot inside and tossed it
into your garden?

"MrBlueSkye" wrote in message
...
Hi does anyone recognize this seed I found it laying on the top of my
garden
soil this morning. It is possible that it has been there for sometime, or
that it has arrived recently. The freezing weather and fact that I have
nothing in my garden that would produce a seed of this size leaves me
puzzled as to what it is, where it has come from

A bird or a mammal squirrel etc could well have found it or dug it
up somehere else.

Whether its a seed or not is questionable IMO.

To me the roots most resemble the sort of rooots which develop from
the discarded rootplate, sliced off the bottom of an onion or a
leek. If it wasn't for the size and ither things, I'd say this was
the discarded part of some vegetable or fruit which had been
left in a compost heap somewhere where it had rooted and been
dragged out by small mammal etc.

However picture 4 is strongly suggestive of something which had
been attached by a stem - a fruit or berry etc rather than something
which grows directly in the ground, which means it shouldn't produce
roots.

I stand to be corrected, but the distribution and quantity of the roots
from the body of the object, doesn't look very seed like to me.


michael adams

It might be worthwhile adding that viewers should click on where it
says [Jan 04 5 pictures] and not [Alien seed 0 picture ] below.










and of course how it has
managed to root in the freezing temperatures of the last month or so. At
it's longest points it is 30mm long and 20mm wide, and quite hard to the
touch. (I have of course potted it up)
MBS


http://spaces.msn.com/members/MrBlue...c02_owner=1&_c

"michael adams" wrote after

"MrBlueSkye" wrote ...
Hi does anyone recognize this seed I found it laying on the top of my
garden
soil this morning. It is possible that it has been there for sometime, or
that it has arrived recently. The freezing weather and fact that I have
nothing in my garden that would produce a seed of this size leaves me
puzzled as to what it is, where it has come from

A bird or a mammal squirrel etc could well have found it or dug it
up somehere else.

Whether its a seed or not is questionable IMO.

To me the roots most resemble the sort of rooots which develop from
the discarded rootplate, sliced off the bottom of an onion or a
leek. If it wasn't for the size and ither things, I'd say this was
the discarded part of some vegetable or fruit which had been
left in a compost heap somewhere where it had rooted and been
dragged out by small mammal etc.

However picture 4 is strongly suggestive of something which had
been attached by a stem - a fruit or berry etc rather than something
which grows directly in the ground, which means it shouldn't produce
roots.

I stand to be corrected, but the distribution and quantity of the roots
from the body of the object, doesn't look very seed like to me.

I also don't think it a seed because of the well distributed roots, more
like a garlic, leek or perhaps lilly "pip or bulbil" that's rooted.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...

"michael adams" wrote after

"MrBlueSkye" wrote ...
Hi does anyone recognize this seed I found it laying on the top of my
garden
soil this morning. It is possible that it has been there for sometime,
or
that it has arrived recently. The freezing weather and fact that I have
nothing in my garden that would produce a seed of this size leaves me
puzzled as to what it is, where it has come from

A bird or a mammal squirrel etc could well have found it or dug it
up somehere else.

Whether its a seed or not is questionable IMO.

To me the roots most resemble the sort of rooots which develop from
the discarded rootplate, sliced off the bottom of an onion or a
leek. If it wasn't for the size and ither things, I'd say this was
the discarded part of some vegetable or fruit which had been
left in a compost heap somewhere where it had rooted and been
dragged out by small mammal etc.

However picture 4 is strongly suggestive of something which had
been attached by a stem - a fruit or berry etc rather than something
which grows directly in the ground, which means it shouldn't produce
roots.

I stand to be corrected, but the distribution and quantity of the roots
from the body of the object, doesn't look very seed like to me.

I also don't think it a seed because of the well distributed roots, more
like a garlic, leek or perhaps lilly "pip or bulbil" that's rooted.


Good thinking. As that would account for the round feature, whatever
it's called, where a stalk seems to have been joined to the body - which
is clearly shown in picture 5 ( not 4 as I said before). As pips and
bulbils grow on stalks. It looks as though something took a bite out
of one side of it as well, and maybe it was that which triggered
it off.

michael adams







--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

Janet Baraclough wrote:

The message
from "Bob Hobden" contains these words:
I also don't think it a seed because of the well distributed roots, more
like a garlic, leek or perhaps lilly "pip or bulbil" that's rooted.

It looks to me like a very small green potato; or possibly a
potato-plant fruit.

The 'well distributed roots' thing can happen to an avocado or a seed
if it wasn't burried and just laid on a waterlogged ground and took
hold with its roots without rotting. A stressed seed sends roots all
over the place in those conditions. Also too large for farlic, leek or
pip or bulbil.

It is too round, too perfect a shape and has a basal eye right at the
centre suggesting it had a flower then a fruit, so it's not a potato.

I'll go with the avocado suggestion.

Dave Poole wrote:
Sorry but you're wrong about the way seeds produce roots. Seeds
produce roots by:

(snip)

) That was my part one revision! And yes you are absolutely right. I
have come to the conclusion I did precisely because I thought as a
dicotyledon, the axillary roots had developed sooner because of the
circumstances of the seed, found on the ground rather than deeply
planted, I kept thinking about 'abnormality' rather than the correct
order of things developing. I suppose this was brought on by the way
the finder found the seed lying just there ...

Roots are not produced in all directions and from various parts of the
seed. They develop only from the embryo to support it, which means
they can only originate from a single point. The rooting shown in the
photograph is typically adventitious and characteristic of a tuber or
rhizome.

Yes - but the shape is not characteristic of a tuber or rhizome. I
thought the seed had cracked, like an avocado do, and sent its main
radicle and then the axillary roots developed from that point in a
humid/moist atmosphere, the roots would have followed the line. The
roots on the pictures are not all over, but if you look they come from
one single line, which made me think of the avocado, that and the
perfect 'bottom' the seed had, and again, the 'odd circumstances' that
seed developed.

It probably is. Look again. That 'eye' is an abscission scar typical
of stoloniferously produced tubers.

A leaf scar rather than a flower/fruit? (I wish I had my notes with me
....). The seed's very firm too. Wouldn't a spud be all soft by now
after all those roots and efforts?

I've seen imperfectly formed
potatoes that are almost identical to this. They are formed on
lateral shoots which develop at or above ground level and fail to grow
down into the soil. It usually happens at the end of the growing
season and instead of the stem tip forming a proper swollen tuber, it
becomes stunted. The pic is too unclear to be 100% certain, but it's
odds-on that its a spud.

Yes. I got derouted by the perfect 'bottom'. But yes and I only wish I
could hold the damn thing. I really enjoy ident. exercise.

The message .com
from "La Puce" contains these words:

/snip/

Yes. I got derouted by the perfect 'bottom'. But yes and I only wish I
could hold the damn thing. I really enjoy ident. exercise.

Hmmmmmmmm, yes! I know *EXACTLY* what you mean.........

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

Rusty Hinge 2 wrote:

Hmmmmmmmm, yes! I know *EXACTLY* what you mean.........

LOL!! Honestly Rusty ... But I let you in a secret: I just can't help
it and I don't know how I do it either. I came out with a cracker the
other day. Took me a while to figure out why my entire office had
collapsed into hysterical laugher. But as long as I bring a smile or
three, that's fine by me )

Dave Poole wrote:
Tubers and abbreviated rhizomes come in all shapes and sizes, they are
not all irregular and some can be perfectly spherical or ovoid.

(snip)

That I didn't know. I'll have to find some examples.

The testa or seed coat of an avocado is very thin and once the seed is
removed from the fruit, always oxidises through to brown, never green.

(snip)

I looked again and I would trust you with my own child Dave, but
there's still something that I'm not convinced about. The shape first,
and second the colour. But as for the firmness, I indeed didn't think
of the cold. I look forward to see what developes from this and hope Mr
Bright or Blue sky tells us when it happens.

You are thinking of the hilum - the 'scar' where seed was attached to
the ovary. Invariably this is elliptic in shape, very regular and a
different colour. It is only noticeable on the testa, and does not
appear as a scar when the testa has been removed.
(snip)

Thank you for so much info. The next avocado I get to eat is going to
get a serious look at beleive me.

Of course, the Benny Hill syndrome - I know it well

)) I've got the impossibly crazy music in my head now.

I vote advocado too. Kept warm in a compost heap and distrubuted by mysterious beasts in the night...

Bob

"undergroundbob" wrote in message
...

I vote advocado too. Kept warm in a compost heap and distrubuted by
mysterious beasts in the night...

Bob


--
undergroundbob

I withdraw my vote for Avocado. Dave has got a good handle on this one.
I don't think the stone turns green when it grows or does it?

As this thread has generated such a wonderful response I am going to exhume
the beastie and do some far better quality pictures
MBS
"Rupert" wrote in message
...

"undergroundbob" wrote in
message ...

I vote advocado too. Kept warm in a compost heap and distrubuted by
mysterious beasts in the night...

Bob


--
undergroundbob

I withdraw my vote for Avocado. Dave has got a good handle on this one.
I don't think the stone turns green when it grows or does it?

"Dave Poole" wrote in message
...
Rupert wrote:

I withdraw my vote for Avocado. Dave has got a good handle on this one.
I don't think the stone turns green when it grows or does it?

No it doesn't. If the seed coat of avocado is removed, the large
creamy egg shape you are left with is the endosperm, which stores
starches to be converted to sugars that nourish the germinating
embryo. It does not have chloroplasts and cannot turn green.
Occasionally, superficial oxidisation of starches close to the surface
of the endosperm cause it to stain purplish.

The mystery object cannot be a seed, nut or fruit, it has to be a
tuber of some sort. I can't begin to count the number of different
species of plants I've grown from all over the world, but it must
several thousand by now. I've never seen seeds that develop roots in
this way and I am certain that there are no plants where rooting
occurs from the main body of the cotyledon or from the endosperm.

Dave Poole
Torquay, Coastal South Devon UK
Winter min -2°C. Summer max 34°C.
Growing season: March - November

Excellent -I double withdraw my vote.
You can go to bed now in the true knowledge that I am happy and I do not
concrete D Antarctica into the ground.

MrBlueSkye wrote:
As this thread has generated such a wonderful response I am going to exhume
the beastie and do some far better quality pictures

Marvelous stuff. My first question is, can you tell me if you can
scratch the green stuff off?