Little Naturalists: Playing with Seeds
Submitted by Leslie Day on
The Reason For a Flower by Ruth Heller is one of my favorite children’s books. It teaches us that “the reason for a flower is to manufacture seeds.” My last post was Wildflowers Everywhere, well those beautiful spring flowers have produced many interesting fruit. Fruit is the part of the plant that holds the seeds. Within all of these fruit are seeds you can collect.
Playing with seeds is fun! Collect a number of different fruit and seeds and have your children sort them, count them, draw them, contrast and compare their shapes and colors. Some of the seeds can be put in soil and they will germinate or grow right away. Some might need to be planted outside and go through one winter before they germinate. It’s fun to walk up to a tree and see what surprises are in store for you. But we are not the only ones who need and value fruit and seeds. Our city’s wildlife: seed eating birds, squirrels, chipmunks and other rodents depend upon the fruit and their seeds that our trees produce. Here are some fruit to look for in midsummer.