written by Krystal Coxon, St. Louis Chapter member
September 28, 2022,
Wild Ones chapter member Krystal Coxon hosted a group of 10 children in her yard to collect native seeds and explore their diversity in characteristics and methods of spreading. The children, ages 5-12 years old, walked around the yard on a Wednesday in fall gathering seedheads and each child worked in turns to open them and observe their size, shape, color and ways in which the seeds might spread.
The chaff on the common milkweed and butterfly weed surprised many of the kids who could see the seeds fly far away before landing in what may become their new growing spot. The rattlesnake master seeds fell out of the spiked seedheads with ease and the kids noted their large size. The blue wild indigo seedheads rattled like a rattlesnake and the bee balm seeds were very tiny. The feathery seeds on the little bluestem hinted at their possible flight and rose mallow with its many seedheads each filled with many seeds suggested that they spread easily. The children were quick to understand that birds help spread seeds like beauty berry and native black raspberries with one child stating, “The birds poop the seeds out.”
A microscope was on hand for the children to see the seeds up close. The gathering culminated with the kids filling seed packets that they labeled and took home to plant. Coxon provided parents with the seed identification, collection and stratification links listed on the Grow Native website: https://grownative.org/learn/seeds/.
