Doing a little detective work

If ever there was a use for a thesaurus it's when you're trying to do a search for something that you know very little about.  I kept wanting a new set of words for "seed pod" and had very little luck.

This afternoon on my photo journey to find something interesting for my 365 project, I came across some interesting seeds.

I tried to take one of the seed pods with me, but they were really stubborn!  I broke the pod of the one I was trying to pull off and the stem to the plant never did break off.

I took a photo of the seed pods, but there weren't any flowers on the very tall plants.

So I come back home and try to Google some keywords that relate to my seed pod to discover the name of the plant.  I switch to images so I can go through them quickly.

I tried
Black Seed pod 5"
flower seed pod black four sides
Black seed pod + bean-like (I got beans - hundreds of bean photos)

Nothing.

I just assumed it was a flower, so I tried
black seed pod bushes


Nothing


Finally I started THINKING!
that's difficult some days.


Florida Flowers with black seed pods

BINGO!
It was on page two, but there they were!

Source

Candlebrush is a member of the bean or legume family, and there are two different species that go by this common name.  Other common names for this bold tropical beauty are Christmas Candle and Emperor’s Candlesticks.  So it’s important to be able to identify today’s featured plant as Senna alata. (And to add to the confusion, older books name this plant as Cassia alata.)
(Source)

Source - Top Tropicals - Senna Alata

According to the UF/IFAS Okeechobee County Extension Service, where the above quote was taken, these cool looking plants have some bad habits.  They are a bit invasive, the entire plant is poisonous if swallowed, but are used for medicinal purposes and they really only have a three season life.  They can become quite large,  think shrubs, and they create sucker plants like crazy.  I guess if one were to plant this flowering shrub you'd want it to be confined to a small location so the gardener could weed the suckers easily or to give it tons of space to just take over.

I'm going to try to go back to the location where I found the bush, this time armed with a knife or pair of scissors, and get a few more seed pods.  They are just terribly cool and I want to photograph them in an unnatural environment - like my table!

Have you found an unusual plant lately?

Have a great day!
Kristin