Seed Nerds

Yesterday I was invited to guide a group of Botanist from the Shaw Nature Reserve in Eureka, MO to some glades in the Mark Twain NF near here so they could collect seeds for a seed bank where they'll freeze them for use in case of emergencies.

If you thought computers geeks were nerdy you ain't seen nothing. The seven of them, five women and two men, walked as slow as turtles over the glades and they knew then names of every plant out there, except one, which of course caused a great deal of excitement.

Try as I might, I couldn't remember the names of those plants 10 seconds after they told them to me (Except "Ladies Trusses" which are a cute little orchid .

It was incredibly cool to tag along and very enlightening to see what excited them. I even got to teach them one thing. There was a centipede (or millipede) that locals here call "Amaretto Bugs" curled up next to the unidentified plant they were looking at and one of them pointed it out. I told them what we call them and that if you pick one up and smell it they smell just like "Amaretto". One of them looked at me like I was pulling their leg, but they picked it up and sniffed it and confirmed what I had said. They passed that little bug all around and all were pretty much amazed. They said they don't have them where they work, and had never heard of them before.

Before they left one came over with a leaf that had a tiny caterpillar on it she called a "Rose Slug Caterpillar". It was a cute little thing and I had never seen one of them before.

Boy I admire those kind of people. I am interested in plants and insects but for the life of me I can't remember their names. So while I'm hiking I end up looking around and saying to myself "hmm, there's another one of those whatchamacallums"

At Colorado State that is a normal person.

Did they look like this?

http://seedlab.colostate.edu/Staff.htm

How did it smell?

food:



That's pretty funny.

bill, they've got a similar bug down in Mexico that smells a little different; they call it bicho de kahlua ("kahlua bug.")

Do not meddle in the affairs of seed nerds, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

For several years I did some work for The Theodore Payne Foundation , an organization devoted to native California plants. They have a seed bank of annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees native to our state. Very interesting people, and I learned a lot from them.

I didn't take the time to find out, but it tasted awful



YES! What's the deal, do they have their own fashion and style trends going or what?



Whoops, I take it all back. (Now I'm worried they'll sabotage my garden with weed seed

My Dad was an agronomist (PhD in Agronomy) and was a seed 'breeder'. He did research in cotton and soybeans and was well known for his research in sunflowers.

He knew a lot of the Latin names for various plants in our Texas Panhandle area but he also taught me about common plants (and their names) and how to find them and use them - prickly pear cactus, pencil cholla (strawberry type fruit), ephedra, cattails, wild grapes, etc. As a young boy, it was always fascinating to go out with him.

Now, when I take our Scouts out in East Texas they ask me about plants and I have to confess that I don't know them since I didn't grow up here. But, we get to learn together and that makes things interest I think.