In October, Dr. Rachel Johnson arranged tours of the arboretum for two classes of first-year students. The tours occurred on October 25th, a little more than a month ago. During both tours, students collected red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) seeds. At the conclusion of each tour, each group of students was encouraged to plant five seeds in two separate sunny spots on the grassy slope near Cline Hall. After planting, students hammered stakes in the ground to protect their germination projects and watered the seeds. The ground has remained damp since then. Now that we are at the end of November, seedlings are emerging!
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Each planting location has its own sign. This one is for the seeds planted by students in the 8 o'clock class.
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The planting sites are small, just big enough for five buckeye seeds. Two stakes protect the space. At first glance, it doesn't look like much is happening here.
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If we stoop down to closely examine the soil surface, we can see our first seedling is up and on the verge of unfurling. It's already 4 inches tall! There are two other seedlings in this spot, just beginning to emerge from the dirt.
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Not far from the 8 a.m. planting, the seeds planted by students in the 12 o'clock class have a space marked.
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Interestingly, as of November 28th, this spot doesn't show any activity. The same planting procedures were followed for both classes, with only four hours separating their activity, so why would one planting of seeds germinate in advance of another? Of course, it could simply be the result of random seed variation. However, it should be noted that the two classes collected seeds from two different groupings of red buckeyes. The 8 a.m. class collected their seeds from the buckeyes planted in 1997; these small trees had fruits still attached, so the seeds were removed directly from the trees. By contrast, students in the 12 p.m. class collected seeds from the older, original grouping of buckeyes, planted in 1986. These seeds were picked up off the ground. So, while the planting procedures were nearly the same, the collection procedures were a little different. The seeds from the two different sources looked the same, so perhaps age has something to do with viability. Only time will tell.
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