Thursday, October 15, 2009

This is not a flamingo, its an Aesculus germinating

I know it's not a flamingo because I've seen a lot of flamingos; real ones, wooden ones, many ceramic, but mostly plastic. Actually, I can look over the screen, out the window, and see three now.

Most members of the genus Aesculus, including buckeyes and horse chestnuts, produce these large fruits, "buckeyes". Along the Fern Valley road, there are hundreds of Aesculus parviflora and pavia. The seeds fall and the leaves fall and it rains and the seeds germinate above ground. I've raked up thousands of these "chestnut sprouts" but was never struck by the form of an individual.

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