OK, guys and girls. Here’s one I have been working on for years! A long time ago I was in the Florida Keys and I came across a branch on the ground in the old part of Key West. The branch had spherical fruiting bodies about the size of a grape. My memory is getting a little fuzzy, but I think the fruit dried up and I decided to peel open the fruit pod. Inside where these really cool dense black seed pods that would be awesome for necklace beads. I have traveled back to the original location twice and have not been able to identify a tree that could’ve been the source. Here’s hoping some super sleuth knows exactly what this is. It is almost featureless.
by nivenfan
3 Comments
Google pointed me in the direction of Sapindus marginatus / Florida soapberry. Western soapberry / S. saponaria is a similar possibility. These would fit your recollection of grape-sized fruits.
Agree that it’s very likely a seed of Sapindaceae. Besides Sapindus, Hypelate trifoliata and Exothea paniculata are also possibilities in S. Florida with berry fruits.
Soapberry for the win! That looks very familiar. Thank you!