seeds

the top photo is of northern tepehuam teosinte from last season...by late septemeber the husks ion the seeds had begun to peel back as the seeds matured and the seed ears prepared to shatter spreading the seed...a process i had seen in that variety in the five seasons i grew it...so i was not really prepared for what i found when i brought in the ears from the damaged stalks...there were seeds there...i could feel them through the husk so i took some apart to see what was what...there is a tough outer husk like that of an ear of maize ( second photo )and inside that a second one ( third) wrapping three spikes of seeds ( fourth ) each of which in turn had another, individual husk (fifth and sixth)...i am hoping that all this protection is simply because the seeds are so immature...i would not be happy to see a "wild and weedy" ancestor adding any fuel to hugh iltuis' insane idea of maize "catastrophic sexual mutation"...rather i am hoping that the "long season" native seed search warned me of is the reason and that as the seeds near maturity the ears open to allow the seed to shatter...otherwise, like maize ( which was artificially selected to behave the way it does husk-wise...there may have been mutation but it was encouraged by agriculturalists, not catastrophe ) this plant could never reproduce without human intervention...that seems unlikely...if the frost holds off ( and how long could that delay be expected to last? don't ask me, ask the climate ) i am hoping to see a thinning of the husks...more on that if conditions allow it.