A Force of Nature

POP!POP! POP! a handful of seeds hits the window. These are the evenings when we feel under siege, when the wisteria flings itself against the glass and bombards us as we sit down to dinner. CRACK! the seeds hit the concrete walkway. BANG! the spent pods bounce off the siding. There are hundreds of them on the plant, and the ground is littered with shells and seeds. The first few times we experienced this, we thought someone was throwing pebbles at the side of the house. It seems dangerous and foolhardy to think of standing under the carport that supports this old vine.

The pods, from four to six inches long, are a beautiful greensih brown, and velvety soft, like antlers. They are hard as nutshells, and cannot be broken by hand, but as they dry a great force builds up inside until they spring apart and send flat brown seeds flying off into the universe. I have read that they can travel up to seventy feet.