Germination Experiment

I started my Bald Cypress Germination project in November 2002 when I collected about a quart of seeds at public parks in Fort Worth and Arlington.

Top view of (what I think are) Bald Cypress seeds. (3/8/03)

After leaving these seeds in moist paper towels for 2 months and see no life, I decided to try something new with 1/2 the "5 min alcohol soak" seeds. My original alcohol soak involved husk and seeds. I didn't try to separate seeds. I thought they might be too fragile.

Today, I went ahead and tried to remove the husks and wash off the sticky yellow resin. If I've properly guessed what a seed is, then these critters are bald cypress seeds. They are extremely hard, especially when compared to the soft 'cork' like husk.

45 degree angle of bald cypress seeds (3/8/03)

I thought this a useful demonstration of how non-uniform the seeds look.

I went ahead and used a pin to poke one or two holes in half the cleaned seeds (scarification). Most of the seeds are seemed 'hollow'. The pin would meet initial resistance on the hard outer shell. When the outer shell was punctured, the pin would glide down a short distance before hitting the 'inside' of the opposite seed wall.

The husks (3/8/03)

I hoping someone will direct me to a resource for properly naming these things. Heck, maybe they are the seeds.

Since the 'seeds' are non-uniform, I sometimes differentiated between 'husk' and 'seed' entirely by hardness. If it easily tore off, it was husk.