Seed Gleaning Q&A
By: Mary Simun
In late summer and fall, people often ask why the native plants turn brown. The simple answer is that everything has a life cycle. The life cycle of native plants, like everything else has a purpose. When the plants turn brown in the late summer/fall, the seeds are released. They also turn brown because the plants are going dormant to protect themselves from water loss and death. These bare branches serve as habitat for pollinators but the seeds in addition to growing new plants, feed the pollinators during the fall/winter months before everything starts blooming again.
Curious to learn more? Take a look at the Q&A below:
SBPC volunteers glean seeds from a native plant at the Esplanade Bluffs in Redondo Beach, CA.
Q: What are seeds? And Where are they?
A: Seeds are the offspring of a plant that contain tiny unique packets of genetic information. The seeds can be found in dry casings or capsules on the plants.
Q: Why do plants produce seeds?
A: Seeds are how plants reproduce, by passing on their genes to the next generation
Q: Do seeds serve any other functions?
A: In addition to adding to the gene Bank of the future, seeds provide food to a variety of animals, and directly or indirectly nourish the soil via decomposition by fungi, bacteria, and other microbes.
Q: Why does SBPC harvest (or glean) the seeds of native plants?
A: We glean Seeds to store the biodiversity they contain, to share them with our community, and to increase the proportion that will successfully become mature plants. Gleaning, is to carefully gather a portion of the total crop.
Q: Does SBPC take all of the seeds?
A: We take a fraction of the seed bank produced by plants, providing ample food for animals. In our planted areas, the spaces are often too crowded with vegetation to allow most seeds to grow into mature plants.
So what we are doing when we, humans, collect and save seed to plant at habitat restoration sites is to mimic the natural seed dispersal process, directing them to where we want them to grow (specific restoration areas), like Hopkins Wilderness Park, the beach bluffs, and pollinator gardens.
Q: When are seeds gleaned?
A: Plant life cycles vary. The majority of the coastal sage scrub and chaparral natives bloom in the spring and early summer, so mature seeds are best harvested in the fall and winter.
Q: Are all seeds the same?
A: Each family of plants tends to have specific seed characteristics, and consequently harvesting methods will vary. Some seeds are almost invisible to the naked eye (i.e.: sagebrush), while others such as the coconut, are gigantic by comparison. A Lupine pod and seeds are pictured below.
Photography: Daniel Fort
Interested in learning more? Read about the latest Eagle Scout project experience building a propagation area at Wilderness Park.
“For everything there is a season…”