Whats this. Stem coils and fruit on plant?

Margo

Got any idea what this is

Silver surfer · Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 10:21 pm Post subject:

Looks like seed pods of Cyclamen sp.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cyclamen+seed+pods&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=65WEVcP3IMG8UoazgZAM&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1536&bih=728

Quote wiki...

"The flower stem coils or bends when the fruit begins to form. The stems of Cyclamen hederifolium and Cyclamen coum coil starting at the end, Cyclamen persicum arches downwards but does not curl, Cyclamen rohlfsianum coils starting near the tuber, and Cyclamen graecum coils both directions, starting at the middle.

The fruit is a round pod that opens by several flaps or teeth at maturity and contains numerous sticky seeds, brown at maturity. Natural seed dispersal is by ants (myrmecochory), which eat the sticky covering and then discard the seeds".

Good guy · Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:14 pm Post subject:

Well isn't that just antastic!
I recall sitting watching ants and ladybirds on a shrub in Crete, once. The ants were cleaning up on the 'honeydew' deposited by the aphids and the ladybirds were cleaning up on the aphids. A perfect example of nature wasting nothing! If I'd waited long enough, maybe I'd have seen the geckos cleaning up the ladybirds.

Margo · Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2015 6:06 am Post subject:

Thankyou all. My friend has moved to the South of France and isn't a gardener. She has sent loads of photographs of her lovely big garden. I've identified most of them but this one puzzled me. Now you say what it is, it clicked. Thanks everybody

Edlyn12 · Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 3:57 pm Post subject:

I have just googled that myself just to double check things!What you have been told is most definitely true,they are cyclamen seed pods.

Edlyn12 · Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2015 3:57 pm Post subject:

I have just googled that myself just to double check things!What you have been told is most definitely true,they are cyclamen seed pods.

Good Luck with your baby cyclamens if they will grow😂