Seeds on the Move
A plant can’t walk, so it sends its seeds traveling: with a spring-loaded pod, a wing that spins in the wind, a fruit that floats, or a snack for an ant.
Balsam
तिउरी फूल
Impatiens balsamina
Touch a ripe balsam pod and it bursts, curling back and flinging its seeds away. That impatience is where the genus name Impatiens comes from.
New Guinea Impatiens
Impatiens hawkeri
Like its relative the balsam, it has spring-loaded seed pods that burst at a touch. It comes from the mountains of New Guinea.
Common Blue Violet
Viola sororia
Violets shoot their seeds from little pods, then ants finish the job: each seed carries an oily treat, so ants take it home, eat the treat, and leave the seed to sprout.
Japanese Maple
मेपल
Acer palmatum
Maple seeds grow in pairs with papery wings. When they fall, they spin like helicopter blades, and the wind carries them away from the parent tree.
Butterfly Pea
अपराजिता फूल
Clitoria ternatea
Its bright blue flowers can turn tea and rice blue. As its bean pods dry, they twist and split open, throwing the seeds out.
Moss Rose
कान्छी (दसबजे) फूल
Portulaca grandiflora
Its tiny seed capsule opens like a lid popping off a jar, spilling dozens of seeds. Its fleshy leaves store water, and its flowers open only in sunshine.
Wisteria
Wisteria sp.
Wisteria’s velvety pods dry and twist until they burst with a crack, throwing their seeds several meters away.
Mexican Petunia
Ruellia simplex
Its seed pods snap open when wet and fling the seeds away, which helps it spread so well that it has become a weed in some warm places.
Pittosporum
Pittosporum tenuifolium
Its seeds are coated in a sticky resin, so they cling to the birds that visit its fruit and get carried off. The name Pittosporum means “pitch seed.”
Brown-Eyed Coneflower
Rudbeckia triloba
Golden rays around a dark brown “eye” made of tightly packed disk flowers. After flowering, birds pick the seeds out of the heads.
More in How Plants Live
The garden is alive and changes through the year. Some plants flower, fruit, or rest only in certain seasons, so what you see depends on when you visit.
See them for yourself
Every plant here grows on our campus in Bhaktapur. Walk the garden on your visit.
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