The Red Seed

While walking with my daughter through the neighborhood in California, I found an odd looking pod. She told me that the pods are from a Magnolia tree and the pods get covered with red seeds. As we continued our walk she kept looking for a pod with red seeds to show me. She did find a pod with one red seed. It looked like a tiny red cinnamon candy and I brought it home to Colorado so I could blog about the unusual pod. I worried that I might get stopped by TSA agents while going through security but no one asked and the pod arrived safe and sound.

How beautiful it must be to have the whole pod covered with red seeds. I went to my favorite resource, the Internet, to find out more about the Magnolia tree. I found out that some seeds do not harm birds or squirrels, yet can poison cats or dogs. It depends on the type of Magnolia tree and there are quite a few varieties of the tree.

I have seen the white blossom in California and wondered if it was a Gardenia by the color and sweet smell. Every day I learn something!

Seeing the red seed and the many that are missing, I thought that with a little glue and some Skittles I could complete the pod with different color "seeds."  I would then have my very own Magskitolia pod. If I plant it, maybe I would soon have a tree with a variety of colored blossoms that smell like candy and the seeds would be good to eat!