seeds

the plants in my back yard are a small microcosm of plants everywhere...there certainly is not a representative of every species of plant back there...however the ones that are there have an agenda that is almost universal in plants ( beyond the fungi and the ferns...and there are ferns and fungi out there ) and that is producing seeds...even the plants that clones of tubers ( spuds, jerusalem artichokes ) produce seed...the plants don't care about how many acres of soybeans we grow or who grew the prize winning pumpkin ...they are dead serious about reproducing and, one suspects, are fully aware that the fruits and vegetables will be eaten...it is a major seed dispersal system...the ramps are going to seed..i will collect as many as i can however i am aware that they can disappear overnight...they have before...

the teosinte plant in this photo may be difficult to see in that clump of grasses...it is the one between the upright bamboos...

it has four branches and is producing ears along the length of each...

some of them have opened to expose seeds in the making...

and the presence of many silks tells me more are in the way...in its native habitat there must be something that consumes the green seeds ( the mature ones are hard as rock )...but i haven't seen anything tough them here...if it were not for the bamboo and twine, eventually this plant would try to lay down to disperse seed as far from the parent plant as possible..one reason they grow so unmanagably tall...

the maize that's back there will be working on seed soon enough as well...its problem is it has no real dispersal mechanism beyond the humans that grow it...a truly domesticated plant, it has undergone what hugh iltus calls "catastrophic sexual mutation"...it cannot reproduce by itself...it was not the plant's idea...humans interfered and selected for tough husks and kernels strongly attached to cobs that would keep the seed from shattering on its own...symbiotic...co-evolved...whatever you call it, maize is dependent on humans to survive...and iof you have read any labels in the supermarket lately you know the inverse may be proportional...

the tomatoes...

the mature hot banana peppers and those on the way...

the grapes in the catalpa tree...

and the drupes of seeds in the mulberry tree all want to be eaten...they don't much care by what...to disperse seed and carry on the replication of their dna...relentless stuff.