Magnolia seed.

Some seeds look innocent. Some don't ...

So in September me'n'my ma were visiting my grandma (cool lady! she got me started on herbs when I was knee-high), and while there, I went for a visit of the local herb gardens (of course). They had one in the backyard of a church, all walled in - grandma lives in the historical (and very pittoresque) town of Goslar, in Germany, in case anybody is wondering. Walls there aren't itsy bitsy small things that you could walk across without breaking into a sweat, no, they're 5 m high and at least 2 m wide.

You could walk on top of the wall, breaking into a sweat, if you so liked -- provided you found a way up. In fact, I did walk on top of a wall along another garden in town, behind another church. They're big on churches in Goslar. And walls.

Besides real walls that first garden also had an old Magnolia tree, gorgeous, in full fruit. I took a few pics of it, very pretty. One of the seedpods was, ahem, interesting - so interesting in fact that my ma asked, when I showed her the pic: "are you going to put that photo on the internet?" ... of course I am, what a question. It'll be in among my photos once I get that far, to my September pics that is.

Back home my dad heard about the pic, too, from my ma, and wanted to see it. Heh, I said, and sent it over. The next phone call started with a great big laugh.

I showed it to my friend, too. He laughed: unbelievable! And then I told some other select people. And now I'm telling you. Here:

Pic: Very interesting magnolia seedpod.
The whole thing is perhaps 4-5 cm long, so it's not huge. Most of the other seeds were less rampant, and therefore, far less interesting. It's true, though, what my ma said: if all magnolias had seeds like this one we'd all have these trees in our back yards. In case you want to grow one: it's a Magnolia kobus.