What do you know about seeds? They can surprise you with their exceptional variety

You hold a newborn baby in your hands and you wonder what miracles await that little soul.

And it’s the same with a tiny seed.

What will it develop into? A weed? A beautiful flower? A magnificent tree? Let me share a few random fun facts about seeds. I hope you enjoy them.

• Orchids are generally regarded by botanists to have the smallest seeds in the world. One tropical species from a rainforest environment requires 35,000,000 seeds to make up one ounce! If you’ve ever seen seeds of vanilla orchids, source of true vanilla flavoring, they’re really tiny, but they are huge compared to those record-setters.
• The largest seed, by comparison, is from the African Seychelles palm. They can tip in at up to 20 pounds per seed.
• You may think that strawberries have their seeds on the outsides of their fruit. If so, you’re certainly not alone. But those “seeds” are actually the true fruit of the strawberries. They’re called achenes, and each one of the dried achenes contains several seeds according to North Carolina State University horticulturists. The tasty, red fleshy part is the swollen receptacle, akin to the hip of a rose.
• You may think of sunflower seeds as being relatively large, but have you ever thought about the comparative size of the actual sunflower flower? It’s really not much different from the size of the seed. Sunflower “flowers” are actually called “heads” and they’re made up of hundreds of individual flowers. That’s why they’re in what is known as the “composite” plant family. Other composites include mums, zinnias and marigolds.
• Through evolution, plants have developed many ways of dispersing their seeds. Some seeds blow in the wind. Dandelions have their fluffy white parachutes that glide. Maples and ashes have winged seeds that flutter. Coconuts float. Mistletoe berries stick to birds’ feet and beaks. Hollies, privets and scores of others pass through birds’ digestive tracts. Burs of all kinds catch onto fur and clothing. Ginkgo fruit smells putrid, so animals leave them alone. The decaying tissues nourish the germinating seeds.
• Seed coats protect seeds from drying, insects and from germinating prematurely. West Texas is well known for the rock-hard seed coats of its native plants. Texas mountain laurel seeds have red seed coats that require filing to penetrate. Bluebonnet seeds aren’t a lot easier. And so here is the real story: Those seed coats serve to keep all of the fresh seeds from germinating the first time there is a little shower – because here in Texas, we never know if that shower might be followed by a prolonged drought. It’s nature’s way to keep a good supply of seeds in reserve so that they can germinate the next time that it rains, and the time after that.
• Sometimes you want to break through those seed coats to get as close to 100 percent germination as possible. That would be true if you were planting a bluebonnet patch, and it would also be true if you were starting a crop of Texas mountain laurels for a nursery. The process of breaking the seed coat is called “scarifying.” With some plants it’s done by freezing the seeds. With others by boiling for a short period. Some can be worked between pieces of sandpaper. Specifically, Texas mountain laurel seeds can be notched with a 3-cornered file as you hold the seed with a pair of pliers. File just through the outer red coat, then soak the seeds overnight before planting. As for bluebonnets, buy professionally acid-scarified seeds for fastest germination.
• Seeds remain viable for the longest times if they’re stored cool and dry. But what is the oldest recorded seed that still germinated? It was a date palm seed recovered from Herod the Great’s palace in Israel in 2005. It was documented to be 2,000 years old, yet it germinated and grew.
• But that pales by comparison to seeds collected from the Arctic in Siberia in 2007. Narrow-leafed campion seeds were found 125 feet below the permafrost. They were carbon-14-dated to be right at 32,000 years old, yet they sprouted and grew.

And finally, to let you finish with a fact you probably already know: what plant flowers above ground but bears its fruit from those flowers below ground? Why, it’s peanuts! They bloom, then they force their developing fruit down into the soil. Which explains why you see peanut farmers buying farms in deep sandy lands and not in the hardpan black clay gumbos in and around DFW.

You can hear Neil Sperry on KLIF 570AM on Saturday afternoons 1-3 pm and on WBAP 820AM Sunday mornings 8-10 am. Join him at www.neilsperry.com and follow him on Facebook.