Seeds, Seed Pods, and Pink/purple Flowers

Agoseros bud pushing through a seed head.

The Agoseris grandiflora seed head may look like a dandelion but it's actually a native. What I find interesting about it is that some plants seem to go straight to seed head from bud without ever showing a flower. I know this can't be true so the flower must be in bloom for a very short period of time.

One of the reasons I like mid June through  July is that it is seed collecting time. I find collecting seeds very meditative. I like all the different shapes and textures of the pods and seeds. It gets me thinking about what a miracle seeds are;  seeds can be dormant for years and then just add water to create life. (For those interested in seeds, there's a very readable book by local award winning author Thor Hanson, The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History.) I like to collect a bunch and then sit at the picnic table and clean it while I'm waiting for visitors to arrive. The following are photos from seven flower species. Looking at the flowers, can you guess what the seed pods would look like, if they have seed pods, and from that what the seeds would look like?

Camassia leichtlinii, great camas

Castilleja hispida, harsh paintbrush

Dodecatheon pulchellum, few-flowered shooting star

Eriophyllum lanatum, woolly sunflower or Oregon sunshine

Erythronium oregonum, fawn lily

Fritillaria affinis, chocolate lily

Ranunculus occidentalis, Western buttercup

Following are photos of the seed pods and the seeds. Your challenge is to match the flower with the appropriate seed and seed pod. 

Seeds and seed pods. Note two species do not form seed pods. This is a double matching challenge. The seeds did not come from the seed pods above them.

On another note, what's with all the pink/purple flowers this time of year. While the meadow covering bloom is long gone and with it most of the yellow flowers, there is still plenty to see this time of year. Just about every visitor the past two weeks has mentioned how amazing the floral display is. Three of the main flowers in bloom now fall in the pink/purple category.

Brodiaea coronaria, harvest brodiaea

Harvest brodiaea can be seen across the island but not in large numbers. It's one of the first flowers to greet visitors at the top of the steps and has a healthy patch above the west spit. Although it is called harvest Brodiaea, I haven't found anywhere what it would be harvested for. If you know, please let me know.

Chamerion angustifolium, fireweed

Fireweed is dense above the east spit where it has been growing since before TNC bought Yellow. It is now spreading around the island with small pockets in the south meadow and on the north side. Some people find it invasive, but it is a native and provides the hummingbirds with a flower to nectar on when the main floral display is over.

Allium cernuum, nodding onion

There is a really nice patch of nodding onion west of the shrubby area above the east spit. Lewis and Clarke claimed the local onion was the antidote to the flatulence caused by eating camas.

Finally, there is still one yellow flower in abundance across the island, Puget Sound gumweed. If you want to know where the plant got its name, simply touch the top of the bud or middle of the flower.

Grindelia integrifolia, Puget Sound gumweed

Answers to the flower, seed pod, seed photos above:

                                SEED POD   SEED     
Camas:                            E               D
Paintbrush:                     A               E
Shooting star:                 D               B
Oregon sunshine:                             C
Fawn lily:                      B               G
Chocolate lily:                C               F
Buttercup:                                        A

(These lined up much better in edit mode; not sure how to get them to line up when edit mode doesn't show what's happening.)

Chocolate lily seed pod and sword fern