A little seed dispersal treat...

Autumn is here as is evident from the increasing numbers of coloured leaves to be found...

...and an enormous array of toadstools which seem to have sprouted just about everywhere after some recent showers...

We also have an over abundance of apples, the excess of which the sheep are quite happy to consume, and a carpet of nuts beneath the walnut and hazelnut trees. Those nuts we miss picking up quickly become ratty's dinner, as evidenced by broken shells on the back lawn in the morning.

So this evening while I was scouring the back lawn for walnuts to pick up, I found...

For those more innocent among you, it is a bit of bird poop, full of seeds. Me being me, and perhaps because it conjured up memories of extracting seeds from monkey poo for my masters, this got me excited... here is an example of nature in action, ecology at work!

We get many fruit eating birds around here – a mixture of natives like kereru, tui, bellbirds and silvereyes and introduced species including blackbirds, thrushes and starlings - and little native tree seedlings popping up all over the place. And it got me curious... what sort of seeds are these?

Most of the seedlings we get seem to be Coprosma robusta and ake-ake – both of which grow in our garden. Ake-ake has wind dispersed seeds though, so I know straight away these seeds are probably not ake-ake. We also get quite a few kowhai seedlings, but these come in pods and I don't think the birds eat them, although both tui and bellbird love the nectar from kowhai flowers. The kowhai seedlings grow mostly underneath our existing kowhai trees, and have probably grown from seeds fallen beneath the adult trees. We also get koromiko, five finger and Pittosporum seedlings but these are a little less common, and very occasionally we get kaikomako, totara and even kahikatea seedlings. We even have a mistletoe that must have got brought in by the birds. Alternatively, these seeds could be a weed like Himalayan honeysuckle or hawthorn. But my top guess is that these are Coprosma seeds... not only are they common seedlings around here, but they are fruiting in full force at the moment too.

Coprosma robusta berries

Being on the back lawn, these seeds, even if they germinate are unlikely to survive. Even though our lawns are plagued with various seedlings, and some get rescued and planted out around the farm, most of get mown before they are big enough for us to transplant. So I decided to take the bird poo and plant its seeds. It serves a double purpose – the seedlings won't get mown off and I get to satisfy my curiosity and find out what they are. It perhaps even serves a third purpose – you can watch the seeds grow with me, and witness a little seed dispersal action. So stay tuned!