THE SEEDS of WILD FLOWERS 291 Media

288 YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1961 mixtures for broadcasting may sell for 2 or 3 dollars an ounce. Many of the seeds are so small that an ounce may contain i thousand or more. Dealers sometimes find that the high, The Seeds of cost of time, labor, and travel to collect a large amount and variety of seeds Wild Flowers from the wild often makes such work unprofitable unless they use seeds first to establish gardens, where their col- p. L. RICKER lecting can be done at small cost. Wild flower enthusiasts will get a great deal of pleasure from collecting OUTSIDE the city limits is a bounty of their own seed. Many beautiful non- Nature for all to enjoy. A bounty free, weedy species may be found along colorful, rewarding. A bounty that roadsides, and particularly secondary gives and gives and wants only protec- roads, and adjoining flclds near pas- tion against destruction. A bounty all tures and wooded areas. the more precious in a civilization of pavements, machines, noise, economics. SEEDS mostly can be collected about It is the bounty of wild plants. It is a month after the flowering period. a large bounty: Probably about 20 Each kind, with stem and often basal thousand species of trees, shrubs, and leaves to help identify the species, herbaceous—nonwoody—plants in the should be placed in an envelope or United States are classified as wild. paper bag of an appropriate size. On About 15 percent are well-established the envelope also, as a guide to proper species that came from other countries planting, should be the date and place or escaped from cultivation. Most of of collecting; the type of soil, whether them are herbaceous. A goodly num- dry, moist, or wet; and details of the ber have leaves and flowers so attrac- surroundings, whether open or dense tive that many persons want to grow woods and the predominant type of them in home gardens, along road- tree growth. sides, and in other suitable places, Seed capsules and pods, if few, can large and small. be stripped from the stems. The seed Some natural difficulties, which per- in them can be crushed out by hand or tain also to cultivated plants and in- on a newspaper on a table by light volve the age-long adaptation to a pounding with a small block of wood. particular soil, the amount of moisture, For a larger amount of seeds, the sunlight, heat, and so on, are en- threshing is best done by light pound- countered when one tries to domesti- ing in a large paper or cloth bag, in cate the Wildlings. Growing them is which they were collected. The seeds worth the efí'ort, however. will fall to the bottom of the bag and Knowing that, many persons want most of the coarse material can be re- information about sources of seed of moved readily. wild flowers. For further cleaning, a series of sieves There are a few dealers in seeds of 10 by 10 by 2 inches (or larger, if wild flowers, but not all of them have a needed) is easily made with J^-inch large number of species. Their cata- wood frames. Screen material may be logs usually give directions for cultiva- obtained from hardware stores in gal- tion. A list of them may be obtained vanized, copper, or brass wire, in a from the U.S. National Arboretum, mesh of 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 30 wires Washington 25, D.G. to the inch. Small packets of seeds of wild flowers For cleaning, the sieves are stacked sell for 25 to 50 cents each. Packets of with the No. 30 mesh at the bottom THE SEEDS OF WfLD FLOWERS 289 and the No. 4 at the top. For shaking that of the Department of the In- seeds through the sieve, these stacks terior, Patuxent Wildlife Research should be held together with an easily Center, at Laurel, Md. It has about loosened, strong cord or strap. Coarse 7,500 species. Particular attention is material in the top sieve should be re- given species that are used as food by moved. Any uncrushed capsules or birds and game. pods in the sieve should be placed on Scientists for many years conducted a newspaper on a table and the seed extensive studies on the food prefer- crushed out of them. The same is done ences of birds, as indicated by an with each succeeding smaller sieve. examination of their stomachs. From The seeds of most wild flowers vary this and other sources, a large catalog so in size that seeds may be found in of plants whose seeds are food for birds sieves of two or three sizes. Often seeds was compiled. Among them are a in the smallest sieve may be immature number of attractive wild flowers, al- and will give less good germination though most are seeds and fleshy fruits than the larger seeds. For home use, of shrubs and trees. Seeds of small- however, they may be mixed with the flowered and abundant weedy plants, larger ones. grasses, and grasslike plants supplied a One who collects seeds should not large proportion of bird food. overlook those with fleshy coverings. The Wild Flower Preservation So- The covering can be removed by ciety of Washington, D.C., also has a soaking the seed in warm water for 10 large collection of about 5 thousand or 15 minutes. Then the seeds are species. It stresses the more attractive placed in a sieve with a mesh smaller flowered herbaceous ones, and prob- than the seeds. The coadng is scrubbed ably has at least 2 thousand species off with a stiff-bristled or wire brush. that are not in the Patuxent collection. This process is not required in Nature, as the covering naturally disintegrates MOST WILD seeds ripen and fall to after planting. the ground about a month after flower- Keeping a collection of samples of ing. Those that are light or have wings all seeds of wild flowers one obtains is or hairy appendages are blown some an interesting hobby. One becomes distance by the wind before falling. familiar with the many types of seed A few species, particularly of annuals found in some families and often with or biennials, like the daisy-fleabane two or three types of seed in a genus. and fringed gentian, may germinate Small seeds are best kept in straight- and develop leaf rosettes in the fall. walled glass vials % by 1% inches in Seeds of wild flowers in most temper- size with cork stoppers. The Latin ate regions require one winter in the name of the species should be printed ground before germinating. If they do on %' by 2-inch gummed labels with not get the right conditions of moisture the date and place of collecting and and temperature to germinate the reference to the herbarium specimen, following spring, they may go dormant if one keeps a herbarium. The label and not germinate until conditions are should be pasted around the top of the right—maybe another year or two. vial. The vials are kept in shallow Some wild flowers are diflScult to boxes about 11 by 17 inches that have establish if the roots are disturbed in 4 rows of 25 cardboard partitions. transplanting. The seeds of such species Larger seeds are placed in larger vials should be planted in a small, tough, in deeper boxes that have 54 or 26 fiber paper pot, which is to be placed compartments. The larger seeds may in the ground in the spring when the be kept loose in boxes with 18 com- seedlings are 3 or 4 inches tall or long. partments. When seeds are broadcast along A large collection of seeds of mostly roadsides that are covered with more native plants in the United States is aggressive vegetation, the seedling Í50GS8S°- - 01 20 290 YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1961 plants may be choked out. The same Seeds of most wild flowers of the six may happen if they are broadcast in geographic areas given below grow woodland areas. well in the average conditions of soil, Much better results will be obtained light, and moisture of each area and if the ground is cleared and a good habitat of each species, unless other- seedbed is prepared. Along some road- wise noted or given in catalogs and sides in Texas, the State highway books on the subject. department has obtained good results by mowing areas of attractive flowers NORTHEASTERN SPECIES just before the seed is fully ripe and spreading this material along roadsides Meadow anemone {Anemone cana- not too thickly covered with other densis). The plants prefer damp thick- vegetation. ets or meadows and in gardens should For home gardens it is best to sow have partial shade. The seeds are thin, the seed of wild flowers in the fall in broadly oval, and about 4x4 mm. about 3-inch-deep boxes of soil, which They have a curved beak as long as the are placed in glass and lath-covered seed. cold frames. Seedling plants can be Wild columbine {Aquilegia canaden- transplanted in the spring when they sis). The plants prefer wooded or open are about 3 or 4 inches tall. rocky areas. In some of its range, blos- soms appear from spring to late fall. SOME WILD FLOWERS have a m.arked They do well in partly shaded gardens. preference for soils that are loamy or The elliptic or pear-shaped seeds are sandy, dry to damp or wet, acid to al- glossy black and about 2 mm.

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