Incredible Up-Close Views of Seeds

Seeds are typically appreciated for what they’ll become—adult trees, or harvestable crops, or, in some cases, snacks. But up close, seeds have their own particular kind of beauty, on display in a new book called Seeing Seeds: A Journey into the World of Seedheads, Pods, and Fruit. 

In it, photographer Robert Llewellyn and horticulture writer Teri Dunn Chace take us through a visual journey of seed formation and dispersal. The macro images show well-known plants like poppies and cattails in a newly glamorous, occasionally otherworldly light. This is the equivalent of an Annie Leibovitz fashion shoot for plants. (The cute pods above belong to a money plant, Lunaria annua.)

The humble flower head of a dandelion is transformed into a bright, alien structure:

This is how your arugula salad starts out:

These seeds are from the red Flanders poppy, known for its use in memorials for soldiers killed in conflict (and its appearance in the poem "In Flanders Fields"):

Cattails are found across many wetlands:

A plant known as the butterfly vine:

This one's nickname is love-in-a-mist:

The Chinese lantern is also called a bladder cherry:

Warning: this book may not be for trypophobics. There are a lot of little holes in seed pods.  

This one's called an angel's trumpet:

A black walnut:

[h/t: Discover]

All images from Seeing Seeds© Copyright 2015 by Teri Dunn Chace. Photos by Robert Llewellyn. Published by Timber Press, Portland, OR. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.