Tag Archives: seeds

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Seed Dispersal

When researching about seeds I was confused at first because writers talk about seeds when they mean the pods or seed containers with the seed inside. The pods are a structure that nature has designed for the only purpose of survival. http://theseedsite.co.uk/dispersal.html

They are for the dispersal of the seeds. The pods can be a beautiful shape. Nature is the true designer.

Hellebore pod and seed

The following is a poem that I wrote in response.

Seed dispersal

 It gently dropped at my feet at the start of its journey.

The seed safe in hard casing rolled down the path with me and the breeze.

Gravity and wind making sure the seed travels far from parent.

Seed dispersal’s main aim to spread the new generation far.

Hundreds sent on their way, not all to arrive safely.

Trodden on or drowned can be their fate.

Walking through the long grasses some sticky weed balls attach.

Ready for me to take them far away. Hooks and spines a useful tool.

As I lay in the sun upon the heath popping sounds mix with bird song.

The seeds are on their way, catapulted from sun dried casings.

Some seeds when released in the sun, form a spiral drill,

Straighten in the rain and penetrate the soil ready for the new growth.

The birds are also carriers eating the fresh luscious seeds as they drop,

then flying on to their next meal; the seeds passing through later.

Drifting on the light breeze the thistledown and bulrush tufts pass,

across moor and motorway they travel to colonise new sites.

Walking home along the stream watching the sunlight through the trees

Falling on the mini casing boats navigating downstream to new homes.

The seeds are beautiful as well.

Cranesbill seed ready to drill
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Seeds

I suppose I should have seen that it could be a natural progression to move on to seeds after working with flowers for so long.

But maybe it was because I have been following the artist Sophie Munns  http://sophiemunns.weebly.com/home.html and her ‘Homage to the Seed’. Her project aims to champion seeds at this time of significant species loss through a layered, and open-ended approach that seeks not to speak one story but discover many as they relate to seeds in the contemporary world. I joined her in an online course and began my own investigations locally. Photographing, Drawing, and researching endangered plants.

The seeds can be large and characterful, or they can be so small there is a need for a magnifying glass to see them.  It amazes me that there are so many ways that seeds can be dispersed with the pods having a major role.

On left Asphodeline and on right pine seed

I was still cutting stamps so decided to turn my sights to seeds and or pods as subjects. Drawing them to get the feel of the shapes and then carving them into rubber.  

Rose drawing and transfering to stamp

Stamping in a small notebook they began to make patterns like those I designed with the flowers. See previous blog Patternmaking. Remembering my conclusion was that I preferred the flower stamps on a painted or printed surface I began experimenting with printing on a Gelli  Plate to get interesting backgrounds.

 What is a Gelli plate you ask? It is a flat block about 1.5cm thick made of silicone. Have a look at this blog to get the idea.  (http://gelliarts.blogspot.com/). Why not put the two together, backgrounds and carved stamps?

Rose stamp on background

I have been lucky enough to work with a Dutch artist Brigit Koopsen https://birgitkoopsen.typepad.com/my_weblog/my-videos-for-gelli-arts.html she has been experimenting with a Gelli Plate printing for many years. She is always finding new ways to use different mediums on the plate. Very inspirational.

Other artists have shown interest in the seed world, one being Paul Klee. To him nature was an inexhaustible source of inspiration. He is rare amongst 20th century artists to have written and made so many paintings about seeds, the life of plants, gardens, and nature in a non -scientific way.

Blossoms in the night by Paul Klee

He wrote in 1923 in his notebook 2: The Nature or Nature.  ‘Despite its primitive smallness, a seed is an energy centre charged to the highest degree. A talisman for the regeneration of that species.’

Having investigated an Oxfordshire endangered species, the corncockle,  

corncockle seed pod and seed

corncockle

and found that its demise is due to farming practices it is good to read that the Crop Trust is doing a lot of research into wild relatives. Defined as wild and weedy cousins of our agricultural crops. https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/supporting-crop-conservation/crop-wild-relatives

There is need to help agriculture with traits to repel pests and disease, overcome extreme weather and endure poor soils. There is a Norwegian founded project centred around their seed bank at Svalbard which is a global seed vault especially for old crop seeds. Birmingham University is part of the project. They are keeping a data base of where wild relatives have been found. Search teams use indigenous tribes to help them find old varieties. Seeds are then sent to Svalbard.

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Plants and Medicine

It started with ‘Garden Secrets’, an exhibition I was involved in at the University of Oxford Botanic Gardens in 2012.

Hegamone’s Remedies

A group of artists including myself were asked to show some site-specific work at the Gardens. I had already made some artists books using Turn End Gardens as inspiration so to wander around another garden tempted me.

 The visit took place in the winter before the London Olympics 2012 and some of the major beds were laid out with the meadow seeds as a trial for the Olympic park.  The master plan for the park was developed by a consortium together with Professors James Hitchmough and Nigel Dunnett.

James and Nigel  said “it was to be a demonstration of a whole new approach to the design and management of public landscapes: where ecology and sustainability is at the forefront, combined with a very strong aesthetic.”

Olympic Park Meadows
meadows as developed by James and Nigel

Although there were no flowers at that time of the year the plants looked strong and as the picture shows the outcome was spectacular.

 But the most interesting part of the gardens to me was the medical plant area in the Walled garden.  Very traditionally laid out in the same format as when they were first laid in 1621 as a physic garden for the medical students at the University.

Walled garden, Oxford Botanic Gardens

 Dr Alison Foster  https://thegardeningchemist.wordpress.com/about/ says in her book “This new medicinal quarter brings together a collection of plants that are central to conventional western medicine in the 21st century, plants are nature’s version of a chemical factory. As such they contain many different natural products, which may have interesting and useful medicinal properties”. The Medicinal Plant Collection at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden 2010

There are arguments that it is were the plants are grown that is important to the chemicals produced not just the plants and seeds themselves. Even if the plants are only grown for the seed bank storage this means they will be available to grow in the future and the plants will not be over collected. Dr Foster commented that the WHO reports that up to 80% of the world’s population relies on plants directly for some aspect of primary health care.

Several things came together in my mind and I made 4 prints on my hand-made paper and four small books about the medical properties of plants, included in each was a dried example of the plant seed.  

‘Hegamone’s Remedies’ by Heather Hunter