Re: Mystery Canaries

Many thanks to the folks who're trying to help on this, including the several who've mailed me directly. Perhaps the most interesting message (because the pod he describes so precisely is so precisely what I received) was from Mr Ph-V Ortega. I'm sure he won't mind my quoting what he said:
 
>>the pods that you describe as "pressed-together miniature turtle-shells" are perhaps what I found in a park (originally the gardens of a mansion) in a town near Barcelona, Spain - I thought that what I found closely resembled an oyster shell - it was a hard as a rock
and I had to pry it open with a screw driver, I think. It had an irregularly undulated or slightly "gnarled" surface. ... The trees were quite tall and stately. Since the gardens had originally belonged to an immigrant who had made a fortune somewhere in Latin America, probably Cuba, one would think he had brought the tree with him from there.
 
Mr Ortega added that the tree had 'mimosa-like' finely cut foliage. Since other people have quizzed me about the plant's foliage (questions I couldn't answer, of course!), asking if it was 'finely cut,' and suggesting that if it was the jacaranda solution might fit, I re-examined my memory re the pods' overall size (in view of Ryan's doubts, too!). Well, ok, maybe a sense of mystery = a tendency to exaggerate, and memory rather than having the pods in front of me doesn't help, so perhaps 1.5/2.25ins long rather than 3+ins!
 
In view of all of which, jacaranda it is??
 
And ricinus for my bean-like seeds in the prickly horse-chestnut-like pods??
 
Mysteries for Christmas seem pleasantly appropriate. Here's to particularly pleasant ones - mysteries and Christmasses - for all Medit-Planters.
 
Tim
 
 
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