When I used to own my furniture store, I was always amazed at all the different the mechanisms for expanding dining tables. People think of so many ways to make tables bigger! And bless them for it; we need tables to accommodate company of all kinds. I liked to lay under a table and stare up at the hinges and springs and bolts and think about the brain that devised this plan. It makes me smile. I miss getting under tables now. It was something like looking up at stars; an enigmatic genius to behold.
I see the same thing in plants and how they set to seed. You would think they would all be the same, but they are not.
I LOVE how Golden Everlasting’s flowers make seeds–somewhere between a sunflower and a dandelion’s methods. The truest yellow center is soft, smooth, teeny balls all packed tight and encircled by papery petals (this flower is also called Strawflower!). The center turns to fuzzy poufs (dandelion style) with little grains of seed at the base of each fuzz, the paper petals bend backwards away from the center due to the burgeoning middle (the pouffy fluff is bigger than the original yellow balls), and eventually the flower pushes the middle forward so much that the little seeds detach from the whole and wind can blow them away by the cottony poufs. I was DELIGHTED to see how they worked when I walked into my garden one day and saw the middles turned to fuzz.
Golden Everlasting or Strawflower Seeds