Re:Sesbania queries (was identifying a tree whose seed came froma member

L Schmiege wrote:
My computer crashed and I lost the name of the tree and the kind person that sent the seeds to me years ago.
It is a georgous, red flowering tree growing in full sun and is now about 5 to 6 feet tall blooming for the second year from July to Sept. I posted pictures of it and it's seed on http://community.webshots.com/user/schmiege I would love to know the name of it and the person that sent the seed.
I planted seed that I had left over from this tree and to my surprise at about 18 inches it is extremely thorny. My tree does not have any thorns. I collected seeds this year and noticed that some are fat and tan and others are small and very dark even though they came out of the same pod. I would like to take these seeds and plant them in the USA in Central Florida and in Richmond, VA. Can anyone tell me if both the fat tan and small black seeds produce the same tree? Why suddenly thorns? I planted another baby plant in shade and it is not growing at all. These trees are in Athens, Greece, hot and dry in Summer cold and wet (we hope) in the Winter but barely freezeing.

Lorraine
Jason has given you the name (Sesbania tripeii) which my book says is commonly known as the Red Bush Wistaria (from its similar shaped inflorescences no doubt).

As to your other queries, the different-looking seeds are quite easy to spot in your pic. and to me the dark ones look undeveloped as though they had not been properly fertilized. I should expect only the fat tan ones to grow, but the phenomenon could just possibly be an exaggerated verson of the method many legumes use to ensure long seed survival, as they could be hard seeds. In many legumes, clover is a common example, a proportion of the fresh seed will not normally germinate even though it contains viable embryos, as there is an extra-hard coat which will not allow water to get in. If these seeds are just kept several years the coats will gradually soften and eventually the seed will condescend to germinate normally. In most plants of this sort this can be induced to happen earlier by some method such as soaking the seeds in near-boiling water or in sulphuric acid or by nicking or abrading a spot on the hard coat to let the water through.

Hard seeds however are not normally much different in size from the quick-germinating ones, so I am more inclined to think your dark ones are simply undeveloped and will never grow.

As to the problem of thorns in the new plants. if you are sure this is the same seed you grew the first one from, either the species has a variable tendency to grow thorns (which is quite possible) or the original seed was a mixture of species. I should think the former is more likely, but you could ensure for certain you have the one you want to take with you to America by taking only some seed off your own established plant. Even if the plant is initially thorny it is possible anyway the thorns may disappear as the plant gets older. The description of Sesbania I have certainly makes no mention of thorns. However when I look closely at the pic. of S.grandiflora, which shows part of the stem, I can see what looks suspiciously like a tiny thorn in the axil of each leaf.

As to the plant in the shade not growing, I am not at all surprised as this is really a tropical species and if planted outside its normal comfort zone will need all the warmth it can get. Though I have it described and pictured in an Australian book the NZ edition of Botanica simply does not bother to mention it as it would never be happy here.

Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm

Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index