Beads, A Gardening Interest?

[digitS']

A search of Amazon and worldcat.org led me to realize that this isn't a book. Checking Google, I now have the idea that this is a Delaware State University herbarium collection.

Back in the 90's, I had castor bean plants in the yard for several years. I have decided that this wasn't smart.

It is a little odd to be leery of a plant but, of course, we all have thorny and prickly things around. Poison oak was the bane of my childhood ... I'm allergic to several things.

Hey, that Jimson weed showed up several years ago in the big veggie garden. I believe it came in with a seed purchase. I don't think it has gone to seed once but I have found a few plants in each of the last three years ...

Steve

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well, I already mentioned finding the rosary pea in the bag of senna in a previous thread.... That's currently in a sealed glass vial, so I don't have to risk touching it accidentally.

Actually I've found a LOT of these things in my searches. Cardiospermum and Leucanea show up ALL THE TIME. In fact it was through Leucanea seed I was able to work out that certain kinds of lentils I was buying which claimed to be grown in Canada weren't (Canada's too cold for subtropical trees). And the rudraksha seed I currently have in my collection showed up in a bag of those mixed shells you buy at the craft store for art projects (over the years I have also found in such bags another leadplant seed, an acacia pod of some sort, two weird star like seeds and one I recognized as Gmelina arborea (a kind of SE Asian timber tree)

 

[flowerweaver]

I don't recommend growing Chinaberry, it is highly invasive. Every part of the tree contains cyanide, and they have a very brittle wood. I lost one and a half during the tornado. Their only saving graces are the pink perfumed flowers that appear in the spring, yellow fall color, and the fact that the Monarchs seem to enjoy dancing around their leaves on both the spring and fall migrations. I can't really tell what they are getting from them. If the old ones I have weren't providing needed shade I'd take them out. I spend at least two days per tree picking up the poisonous berries by hand each year. I'm thinking it might be worth the cost of vacuum bags just to do it that way.

Inside each 'berry' there is a fluted woody bead, already with a hole, but the berries must rot first to get it out and they smell terrible. If you leave them on the ground every one of them will sprout into a tree, and if you let that get bigger than six inches they will grow a foot a month and you will never eradicate them unless you use terrible chemicals. They are resprouters. If by chance you find one that hasn't sprouted, it's usually too decomposed for using as a bead.

 

[journey11]

The Job's tears were some of the prettiest, I thought. I knew the daturas were poisonous, but I didn't know they were used as a narcotic.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well, there not usually considered a good narcotic. The "high" is supposedly moderate, and the side effects brutal. Particularly it is noted for something called "Lilliputian syndrome" (hallucinations of small people attacking you). it's sort of in that "so desperate you'll use anything zone, like nutmeg, airplane glue and cow dung.

BTW useful thing about Job's tears. Because the hole is completely natural (you stick a needle in one end and it comes out the other) it bypasses the actual kernel. That means that a Job's tear seed is still viable even AFTER it's been strung. Can be useful if you are looking for alternate forms. I've seen those skinny ones in the photo before, but never actually seen the seeds in person. But I DID once find a different kind on a strand of "Christmas beads" (assorted small antique Venetian and Bohemian trade beads stung randomly and sold by the foot.) Alas I lost it before I got to plant it (I was eight at the time.)

Oh and again I have never seen them in person, but I have heard that there is a strain that grows in Hawaii whose caryopses are naturally bright red (don't know if the color stays as the seed dries down or they revert to the normal greys and browns.)

 

[flowerweaver]

I've heard teenagers in the southwest experimenting with datura damaged the cones in their eyes. I can't remember if it affected their ability of seeing color, or night vision, or both. Not something to play around with.

 

[catjac1975]

There were kids near me that died when they added it to their weed some time ago.