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Re: purple conflower seed harvest(echinacea purpurea)

Angela:

Your question regarding which is the seed of Purple Coneflower is not 
at all silly and it is great you asked it. I run an international seed 
house, and run across seeds when wild collecting that require some 
work re/identifying the seed. I use a small hand held magnifier where 
in doubt. Each seed is unique. That is part of my fascination with 
them. In  many cases the chaff could easily be mistaken for the seed.

I remember when we first started out & had help one year with the seed 
cleaning by a former graduate of one of the Horticulture schools here. 
She in fact, cleaned the Purple Coneflower and presented us with a bag 
of chaff at the end. She was utterly embarassed. If the head (the cone 
of the flower) has loosened up, you are half-way home. Sometimes the 
head is still very "tight"- and prickly, making the extraction of the 
seed more difficult. If it just falls apart on its own or when you 
apply pressure you should see both long narrow  (sticklike) chaff 
(often with black colored ends) and prickly pieces (which are also 
chaff-formerly part of the cone (head)....This is what our helper 
thought was the seed. But, in between these prickly "sticks" which are 
the chaff are chubby, usually beige-colored vaguely triangular shaped 
seeds....If you really look at the whole mess carefully, you will be 
able to distinguish... 

You can either try blowing off the chaff, by putting the whole works 
in a bowl, or pick the seeds out individually. If this is too hard, 
you can sow with chaff- and this will not affect germination. If a 
seed if viable and healthy, it's germination and aftergrowth will 
rarely be affected by the presence of chaff.

Now, the trickly part of all of this is that the seeds may or may not 
be properly developed (have an embryo). Once you have enough 
experience you can often tell by physically looking whether the seed 
is "with life" so to speak. For these, larger seeds, you can do a 
quick, secondary test- once you have isolated the seed. Just press 
gently on the seed with your forefinger. It should feel hard 
(indicating the presence of an embryo)- if it just collapses under 
your finger (becomes flat)- there is nothing inside.....

Have fun.

Kristl
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