Der-shing Helmer
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PlantFacts™ and free seeds if you want some~ (US only please)
🕑 Added 2019-11-05 05:03:08 +0000 UTCHi guys,
I had a fun trip this weekend to Joshua Tree National Park. Let's learn a bit about Joshua trees (Yucca brevifolia)...
- Joshua Trees are cool (a fact)
- they live in the deserts of the southwestern US
- they are not really trees, they are a tree-like form of Yucca. When you cut them down they do not have rings the way a real tree would. Instead, age is estimated by height of the tree, since in the wild they only grow about 1-1.5 inches per year
- their seed pods were once spread by giant ground sloths! These sloths would eat the fruits of the Joshua Tree and poop the seeds out miles away, which is how the tree naturally spread itself. When the sloths went extinct, the tree's natural range became restricted to wherever it had naturally established itself
- unfortunately due to climate change, areas where the tree currently lives will soon be uninhabitable for them :[ Scientists estimate 90% of the tree's range will be reduced as global temperatures rise
Where am I going with this... oh yeah, we stayed at an AirBNB over the weekend with a lot of Joshua Trees on the property itself. Trees within the park are heavily protected but outside the park they just grow wherever they want, and a ton of the trees we saw were laden with seed pods
These seed pods are actually dried fruits, which the Cahuilla used to cook and eat (the exhibits we went to said they taste like hot banana, lol). If you'd like seeds, work "sloth" into your sentence so I know you read about these things a little/ I don't waste the seeds on ppl who aren't serious. The fruits slowly desiccate over the summer and turn into husky balls like this. When you break them open, it looks like this inside:
There are 4 of those little wedge quarter things, and each one is packed with seeds like... Smarties candies, I guess? Rollos? I'm just thinking about a bunch of tube candies. Anyways. Tube candies are everywhere. Lots of candies. When the fruit is fresh and green, it's pretty well sealed. However as they dry they become susceptible to being eaten by the babies of their pollinator, the Yucca moth. The Yucca moth will lay eggs which hatch, and the larvae eat some c̶a̶n̶d̶i̶e̶s̶ seeds. The uneaten seeds go on to be the potential next gen of plants, and the moth babies get to go on to be the next gen of pollinator moths. The seeds the moths have attacked have big visible boreholes through them. One of the pods I picked up had these holes, though no larvae that I saw.
Some of the seeds never reach viability either, which explains that little pale dude. The seed on the right is a nice, viable seed. Which brings me to the Oh Shit level of seed consideration in the top image. I have a FUCK TONNE of seeds at the moment. The seeds are very fresh, the plants are not endangered or anything (just range-restricted) so the seeds are okay to own, and were not collected illegally, and furthermore they do not have any pests. If you've read through all of this so far, would you like to have a few? The seeds are fresh enough that mine are already germinating. Keep reading if you think you might like a few, and check out the steps required for germination.
Here are the steps I took to germinate my seeds:
- soaked them in aged water (literally just let tapwater sit in a cup overnight and degas the chloramines a bit) on a heat mat for 24 hours
- put the seeds in a wet paper towel and keep it warm (again, heat mat) and moist and out of direct sunlight
- ??
- germination in like 28 hours
Following this guide, apparently after this you just plant the seed white-root up in a 1 gallon pot, water 1x a week when it's young, and let nature take it from there. They grow 1 inch irl but in cultivation can apparently grow 12 inches a year? I guess we'll see~
To properly care for a tree like this you'll probably have to keep it inside during cold months or rainy periods to avoid freezing or drowning it. Otherwise it seems like it just needs sun and warmth to grow!
If you're in the US and would like a packet of seeds I'd be happy to mail you some (I can cover postage). I've checked and it's apparently okay to send this species' seeds (they are only protected/ prohibited to send from AZ plants, not CA). Sorry I can't send internationally, that would def break some rules.
Just comment here with the word I mentioned above and I'll message you for your address~ IDK if anyone will really be interested but if I run out of seeds, I'll amend the post to reflect that.
Comments
Der-shing Helmer
Okie dokie, thanks everyone who participated... this seed trade is closed :3 See you next time
Lauren Sparks
oh my goodness, that's so cool!! I live out here in non-desert Kentucky but would love to keep in a pot for overwintering, if there are any left! I also have an unsloth-like friend who is especially interested in tropical plants and has a greenhouse; I foresee sharing :D Yay!! (I also collected mixed sunflower and morning glory seeds from my garden this year if you want some? I usually send them out with christmas cards)
