eek!! Scorpiurus vermiculatis!

Boys have been having fun for hundreds of years trying to scare the girls with these fake caterpillars.

Who could resist?  This is a fantastic seed capsule!!




From all the photos I have looked at of the different species I see that the trick is to get the pod at just the right time...which seems to be  before it is mature.

The above herbarium specimen fromhttp://linnean-online.org/8698/

Nice link: http://azalas.de/blog/?page_id=825

Article to the right: The Vegetable Garden: Illustrations, Descriptions, and Culture of the Garden Vegetables of Cold and Temperate Climates,  J. Murray, 1885

Gardening for Fun In these days, when so great effort is being expended to to do away with worms and their kind, it seems strange that anyone should grow plants for the sole reason that their pods resemble worms and snails; yet such plants are grown, and the resemblance is great, as the accompanying engraving will testify. This is not an attractive dish, I fancy, to most of us, but I grew its contents in imitation of French gardeners. These plants are grown for no other reason than that they are curious, and for the inimitable pleasure of dropping them into your wife's soup, or laying them beside her plate at dinner time! At least, these are the only uses yet recorded for them. But they are interesting plants,nevertheless. They set a-going a whole series of speculations as to how and why these pods ever came to imitate crawling things so closely. It would be interesting to know if birds mistake them for worms, and thereby scatter the seeds, or if the quirls and wrinkles are only so many means of catching hold of passing animals. These plants are of several kinds, all belonging to the pea family. Three kinds are shown in the accompanying cupful. The round, snail-like specimens are Medicago  scutellata, and they are technically known as Snails. The larger and fatter worms are Scorpiurus vermiculutus, and the small, slender ones, which have crawled to the top of the cup, are Scorpiurus subvillosus: these two are appropriately called Caterpillars or Worms.— Liberty Hyde Bailey,   from American Gardening, 1892 Above: from Dobies of Devon "Scorpiurus muricatus Seeds - Curly Whirly" This great photo below is from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpiurus_muricatus

Scorpiurus muricatus is Scorpiurus  subvillosus.  

I found Smart Seeds on Etsy sells these seeds for around $3.00.  A highly color edited photo there makes them neon purple!

Nice link: http://azalas.de/herbar/Fabaceae.htm  Great Medicago photos....