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Can anyone help identify what this is please?
kittiekat12
Posts: 2
Hi, I'm wondering if anyone could help me identify what this may be that we've found growing at the bottom of our garden please? Many thanks ????
0
Posts
They're the developing seeds of cyclamen. Lovely aren't they?
They fire off in different directions to make new plants.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
They are the seed capsules of the hardy cyclamen (cyclamen hederifolium). Note the wiry twisted stems which actually exert enough gentle pressure to push the capsule onto the ground so that when it splits open the seeds are right on the soil surface, ideally placed to germinate. Seeds will take two to three years to make a corm big enough to flower. Flowers are produced in late summer to autumn, usually pink, sometimes white. The plant grows as a corm, a thick flattened almost woody tuber like process which can get 10 inches across or more after many years. Very hardy, the leaves follow the flowers and often fade out completely through summer so the flowers emerge unaccompanied.
H-C
Fantastic! Thank you very much for your help ?
Interestingly, ants are involved in spreading the seeds which are coated in a sugary substance which they love.
Now that's very interesting Bob. Didn't know that
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
If you want more of the plants then when the capsules begin to split, take the seed and scatter it on a gravel path. Germinates like Cress.If you leave the seed pods near the original plant you end up with hundreds of baby tubers sat on top of the old one.