A Seed Mystery
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I have a small plant- and seed mystery, which has puzzled me for the last few days
This weekend I went through my old seeds and had a closer look at the seeds I brought with me from Indonesia last summer. In one of the packages that my mother-in-law had given to me, I found small seeds that looked familiar accompanied by the text “Kenikir”. Ah, the vegetable that is eaten with that spicy peanut sauce, I thought. But then I started to Google the Indonesian name in order to get the Latin name, and at this time I ran into pictures very similar to one of my own pictures which I showed here last autumn. At this time, some blog readers suggested that it looked like some kind of Cosmos, and according to Google it should indeed be a Cosmos caudatus or perhaps a Cosmos sulphureus, that is a relative to the common Cosmos bipinnatus. One can see the similarities, right? (I took this picture in my children’s great-grandmoter’s back yard, but I forget to ask her about it, which was a shame since she knows a lot about edible leafs.)
But does one really eat the leafs of Cosmos? Anyhow, I kept Googling and found other Indonesian web pages that suggested that this “Kenikir” should be some kinf of Tagetes, which also seems plausible remebering the shape of the leafs (at least as I remember them from the plate). So now I wonder what my Kenikir-seeds will turn into- something Cosmos-like or something Tagetes-like? I hope for the former (and this is also what my wife thinks), but I’m not sure. To start with, I hope they will germinate. And to be on the safe side: neither Cosmos nor Tagetes are toxic, right?
I’ll keep you updated should they germinate.
January 18th, 2010 at 21:12
Man ser ju tydligt likhet med både rosenskära och tagetes så jag väntar med spänning på fortsättningen.. och jag måste säga att de ser mycket bättre ut än våra tagetes som jag inte riktigt gillar i färgen.. =).. men det är jag det. Ha det gott/Moa
January 18th, 2010 at 21:50
Men vilken skönhet tänk om det dessutom går att äta..
Håller tummarna för att dina frön skall gro.
annika
January 18th, 2010 at 22:12
Rosa tagetes skulle ju vara intressant
)
Du visar väl vad det blir…
January 19th, 2010 at 17:39
Vad spännande! Skall bli kul att se vad det blir.
January 20th, 2010 at 8:49
Aldrig hört talas om att varken tagetes eller rosenskära skulle vara giftiga. Det finns ju t o m specifikt ätliga tagetes. Söt är den vad den än är.
January 20th, 2010 at 13:12
Spännande, hoppas vi får höra om fortsättningen.
Snygg är den.
Ha det gott
Birgitta