They'll Never Clone Ya

Although not as nice a day as my trip to the cemetery two weeks ago (which I've been meaning to write about), I had a nice time today. The streets round here are lined with trees - which is great, but for some reason the council consistently re-tars the road right up to the main trunks which just results in raised and cracked road. I noticed yesterday the pavements were covered in gold and brown leaves and conker pods. 'Tis surely a sign of Autumn - although I saw a lot of fresh conkers back in June. The remnants of Hurricane Gordon caused heavy winds the other night and obviously knocked all the seeds out of the Sycamore tree at the back of the garden. I was out playing with the cat today and noticed dozens of Sycamore seeds all over the driveway.

I collected twenty or so pairs and split them, since they seem to fly better that way. I took them up to the top of the stairs and threw them up over the garden. I might be approaching 20, but I was happily entertained doing this several times. With each drop I lost quite a few copters, what with their ability to travel quite far in a breeze. I tried to record it on the camera, but the resolution and frame rate don't do it justice. Having lost most of them by the third time, I went back to the drive to collect more. Next to the bins, I happened upon an unusual specimen.

Amongst all the other 100 or so seeds around me, just one was sitting up like a jack. From my limited knowledge of biology, and extensive searches on Google, I've concluded that a three-winged Sycamore seed is somewhat unusual. I encountered a mutation in my Venus Fly-Trap (II) last year, in which two traps were growing from the same leaf. I don't think it was a genetic mutation, so there would have been little point in letting it flower and collecting the seeds. The copter to the left, however, poses an interesting opportunity. I'm going to plant the seeds to see if it is a genetic mutation. It's also a good way to learn about biology.

Should the seeds sprout and produce their own tri-winged seeds, I'll have a field day exploring whether a tri-winged seed is advantageous.

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