What is it Wednesday: July 22, 2020

Can you identify what's in this photo?

Each Wednesday morning 

on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page

 the Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program posts a photo. 

Readers have all morning and afternoon 

to make their best guess about what the photo is. 

Around 6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.

Each week's What is it Wednesday post 

will also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

 after it is posted on Facebook,

sometimes with additional bonus information. 

In addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday 

on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

we will be reposting old editions,

creating a What is it Wednesday archive. 

This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on

July 22, 2020. 

And the answer is....

This is the seedpod of a cucumber magnolia tree. This seedpod fell to the ground before it was fully mature.

Cucumber magnolias are large deciduous trees, with a straight broad trunk and large oval smooth-edged  leaves. In the spring, large yellow-green flowers with long oval petals develop on the ends of the twigs, usually high in the canopy. We often see the fallen petals of these flowers on trails in the forest in the spring. 

After the flowers, a seedpod develops. When it is new and unripe, it looks a bit like a small cucumber, giving the tree its name. As the seedpods ripen they turn reddish – they sometimes fall from the trees before they fully develop, like the one in this picture. When they are “ripe” the pods open and release oval-shaped bright red seeds, which we also find often on the forest floor, in the fall.

It is interesting that although both seedpods and flowers originate high up in the canopy, we encounter them often on the forest floor below – right now in mid-July there are lots of these partially developed seedpods on the trails.

For a longer look at nature with our LEEP staff, check out our virtual summer camp videos! Each day of day camp, junior camp, and junior high/senior high camp has a nature video and a Terra Dei video to help you learn more about God’s amazing creation. Find them here: https://www.lutherlyn.com/summercamp/2020-virtual-summer-camp.html.   And like and follow Camp Lutherlyn on Facebook, to see What is it Wednesday posts when they come out and have the opportunity to share your guesses in the comments!