Sorry this picture is blurry, but does anyone know what tree these seeds may have come from? I'm just curious, because there's a ton of them mixed into the free mulch I got from the city, and the crows love them. They're about 1-1/4 inch (~3 cm) long, smooth, black, and bullet-shaped.
From that the thread has had 68 views, it really does look like that despite trying, no-one knows. Sorry, I don't, either! It doesn't even look slightly like anything I'm familiar with.
My best guess is magnolia. Here is a list of common street trees in CA: http://www.urbantree.org/list_trees.asp?t=street The only one there that fits is magnolia, of which several varieties are commonly grown in CA. This image shows the seeds of Magnolia grandiflora. http://olharfeliz.typepad.com/jardin/images/magnolia_seeds.jpg After the composting process they would likely turn black. I know squirrels love them. Don't know about birds. The only problem is that they are not quite half the size suggested. "Seeds lenticular to narrowly ellipsoid, (9-)12-14 mm, adaxially slightly grooved" Flora of N. America Of course, coming from compost, we don't really know that they are from a tree.
Very puzzling! Hadn't really even considered it might not be a tree - that would certainly widen the possibilities and explain why it's such a hard one to figure out. Thanks for the attempt anyway, I suppose it will have to remain a mystery, unless someone stumbles upon the answer! :) I do enjoy watching the crows eat the nuts - they're very creative, moving the seeds over to the hard cement or onto the stepping stones so they can peck and pry them open... Makes me wonder who decided "bird-brained" should imply stupidity! They must never have seen a crow at work. ;) Lori
Just a guess, date seeds or pits, maybe 'Medjool' ? A Phoenix dactylifera seed cross section image is shown here www.kew.org/msbp/galleries/seeds/pages/Phoenix_dactylifera_02_S_CS_c1.html
Thanks, Chimera - I found some images of the whole seed, and that's certainly closer to a match! Maybe I'll try opening one up and look inside. Though there seems to be a groove in the date palms seeds that these don't have. Good lead though - I did a search that also took me to this site: http://theseedsite.co.uk/seedsize18.html which showed some other possibly close matches, in particular the Colvillea racemosa looked pretty good, though sounds like it'd be too rare to be the one. Here's a pic of that one: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/9368/ Hmmm...
Maybe try planting some and see what comes up? It doesn't look like a date palm stone to me, they are brown (not black), and have a distinctly wrinkled surface texture (buy some dates to see for yourself!!). I'm not familiar with Colvillea racemosa, but that does look a better bet from the link you posted.
