Well how now. I’ve made an exciting discovery that I don’t know if it really is as exciting as I think it is until I’ve done some experiments. So it’s exciting for the fact that it’s leading to experiments. And experiments are exciting!
Oh. You actually want to know what I’m on about?!
Well, it’s all about lemon verbena (Aloysia citriodora) and her seeds…..
Lemon verbena is mostly propagated by cuttings, which can be a bit of a hit and miss affair.
It just so happens that my lemon verbena is/was flowering a couple of weeks ago, of course you might’ve noticed that in the post I did about my lemon verbena diy deodorant. Here’s that photo again as a reminder!
Lemon Verbena, Aloysia citriodora
More often than not, fruit/seed follows flowers right. So I picked some of the spent flower spikes and some of them appeared to have seed in them.
Now, whilst my plant was in flower I noticed these other things coming out of the plant; long and skinny, not a flower, not leaves…
So this is the exciting part.. these things exploded, have curled back and are releasing what looks to me like seed! Like a cross between very fine lettuce or dandelion seed.
lemon verbena seed capsule?
And it is actually a rogue tall willow herb! Thank you Hannah!
Are these the true lemon verbena seeds? Then theoretically shouldn’t we have lemon verbena sprouting up like dandelion everywhere? Is lemon verbena a monoecious plant? (Monoecious means a plant that has seperate male and female flowers on the same plant) Because lemon verbena goes dormant in winter do the seeds need stratification before germination?
Lesson to be learned here folks.. if you’re excited about something unusual happening in your garden or on a plant, check it out with a friend first before you write a bloomin’ post about it!
well..I have to say lemon verbena is one of my favourite plants. But are you totally absolutely sure those seed pods are on the same plant? It looks like there are some slightly different leaves in there, a bit wider – not a plant poking up through the lemon verbena bush?
I am sure lemon verbena can be grown from seed but I always imagined the seeds being little, inside the flowers.
Would love to try some from seed!
Ye gads! You’re right! Damn you’re clever Hannah! Thank you. I went out with a torch tonight and yep, a weed (tall willow herb, just a single stem) in a very embarrassingly wrong place! Still have seeds from the (lemon verbena) flowers though, phew!