Are these trigonia seeds or something else?

[Mike]

Hi,

When investingating the trigona on the previous post, I noticed some wierd little plants growing in the soil of the trigonia pot - mainly around the edges of the pot near the larger stones I put in for decoration - not near the stem. They seem to have roots since they are sort of stuck in the ground and clumped together.

They are brown, hairy, slighly less than 1 cm high, cone shaped, open at the top, and about 20 black seeds inside. No visible plant apart from these and the trigonia.
Are they trigonia seeds? Frankly, I don't recall it flowering?



Thanks Mike

[Buck Hemenway]

Mike,

They don't look like euphorbia seeds to me. Obviously seeds of course.

Euphorbia seeds are normally 3 per fruit and form a triangular sort of affair. The pod skin stops developing before the seeds do. As the skin of the pod gets dry, the seeds inside are growing and sooner or later they just pop the pod, some with force enough to throw them 20 to 30 feet.

If I had to guess, those look like a bunch of mature cactus fruit maybe from a notocactus or astrophytum that someone dumped in the pot by mistake.

Very interesting, did you take any pics of the seedlings? They will be easily classified either as euphorbia (a pair of cotyledon leaves leading the way) or as cacti. This doesn't 100% guarantee that the seeds you've taken pictures of are the same that caused the seedlings, probably though.

[Guest]

Hi BUck,

There were no seedlings. Just these pods, seemingly growing out the soil (they have roots) At first I thought it was a mushroom of some kind til I saw the seeds.

I repotted this a few months ago, and i suppose it is possible I got something mixed in with it. I guess I will try to grow some next spring and see what it is.

MIke