Comments on: What is this plant thing?

Question: What is this plant thing?

cftarnas — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:22:53 -0800

What on earth is this plant like thing ? My friend posted that to her blog, and I googled around with various combinations of succulent, seed pod and spikey with no luck.. I haven't seen it in person, but my best guess would be a succulent and/or a seed pod of some sort. It was found in the SF East Bay Hills, if that helps.

By: dan g.

dan g. — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:31:37 -0800

looks kind of like a mutant sweetgum fruit...kind of.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:32:17 -0800

These are all over the bay area, and they come from trees. I remember needing to collect a bunch of them a long time ago for a photo shoot where we were trying to emulate allergens (with some serious photochopping magic).

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:29:17 -0800

I second the sweetgum. It looks like still green gumballs that have somehow grown fused. Seeing as how plants often fuse parts, especially in fast growing parts like gumballs, I don't see this as a particularly bizarre result.

By: Asparagirl

Asparagirl — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:29:40 -0800

Mutant version of a California Sycamore seedpod?

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 13:36:47 -0800

I agree that it looks just like a mutant sweetgum pod.

By: MonkeySaltedNuts

MonkeySaltedNuts — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:15:05 -0800

It may not be natural. The herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) in sub-lethal doses can cause plants to grow fused parts.

By: davejay

davejay — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:12:20 -0800

Thank you all for inadvertently answering a question I had not asked: as a non-native to Southern California, I have a yard full of what I now know to be Sweetgum fruit, but never knew what they were called.