Real Life Spiddal Sticks Options

[tegeus-Cromis]

I did think that Spiddal Sticks were based on globe artichokes after they seeded, based on one I saw in a friend's garden, but I've just found about about the Proteaceae (includes a lot of Southern hemisphere species under genus Protea). Some of the images this Google search throws up look just about right:

Burnt Protea

The clever thing is that (like the globe artichoke), those 'petals' are not petals, they're the outer coating of a fruit - and proteas only open up and seed in response to fire, just right for an Oblivion plane, plus the seeds depend on nutrients released by the fire. (Love to grow some but not sure I want to set fire to the garden every year. What would the neighbours say?) Anyway, I'm pretty sure that's where Beth got those from now.

Now if I could just find some harrada, an excellent hedging plant I'd say, though there is the possibility of criminal charges - 'botanical assault' or something...

This post has been edited by tegeus-Cromis: Sep 8 2015, 09:09 PM