I want to share seeds for a swap to this plant and correctly connect it to the data base. Thank you for your help!

Crossandra. Where do you find the seeds? I have it and it flowers all year in my greenhouse but I've never seen seeds.
Firecracker Plant (Crossandra)

I found the seeds when I was showing my friend the backyard of a neighbor whose house is across the street from Lake Erie in Mentor on the lake, Ohio. She shops at a nursery in Madison, Ohio. I asked her if I could have the seeds when I saw it on a table in the full sun on a patio. I am so glad that you gave me this comment. Now I have a good excuse to go back (share you comment)and ask her for more seeds from another plant that I saw there. I just felt kind of greedy and a little embarrassed in front of my friend to be begging for seeds.

Sam, I don't see any actual Crossandra seeds in your photo. I just see the dried bracts.

You'll need to look for the seed pods within that dried stem of bracts. The pods look like elongated ovals with pointed tips. When the pods dry from green to tan, they will pop open explosively and distribute the seeds. The seeds are a straw color, have a rough texture, and are flat-ish (but not paper thin and flaky...more like a lentil.) Each pod will contain from 0 - 4 seeds. It can can be tricky to get the timing just right to catch the seeds. Collect them too soon and the seeds won't be viable: wait too long and the pods will spring open and fling the seeds to unknown places. I usually use a net bag over the whole flower spike when trying to catch seeds of Acanthus family (Acanthaceae) plants. They are tricky little guys!

I don't like to link to DG but it's all that I can find right now. The photo shows pods on the left and the actual seeds are shown in the lower right corner.

Edit: Oh, and explore the bracts gingerly. I recall getting some painful pricks from the dried bracts and such while looking for pods.

I will send you another picture. This is what they (seeds) looked like after I opened the husky dried bracts/ Straw colored and elongated. Top right corner of your picture.

Yes, they were prickly. I did not see any spherical shapes while counting them out for the swap like you showed me in the lower right corner.

Ok, now I feel really stupid! I'd watch all the flowers bloom along the stalk, and then when the stalk was empty of flowers I cut it off never thinking it would be seeds in them! I just cut off about 7 of those the other day. I'll be gathering seeds next time! Thanks for posting this question!

Well, if you have the plant and have been cutting off the stalks, the plant is probably very lovely. The plant did not send energy to seed production. Also, I am not sure if I remember this correctly, but in its data it MAY not grow true from seed. on getting it to grow from seed. Do you divide yours?

No, I haven't divided it and it's growing quite large and blooming all the time, but it's in a greenhouse where it's nice and humid and protected. It hasn't gotten any of the bugs that the other plants have had. I'll have to read up on seeds. I'd also love to get some of the other ones. Mine is Apricot sun.

I can send you some but, you must propose how I cAn do this. Can you join the swap? Oh and I guessed the color on this one as orange marmalade and I am getting used to being redirected so let me know if I was right.

Thank you for the offer. I may join the swap!
I am not expert enough to tell if yours is the Orange Marmalade. Here is a web site for it. Does it look like yours?
http://www.monrovia.com/plant-...

Yes

Great! I'm going to be checking for seeds now, and see if they will grow true from seed.

Samlav said:I will send you another picture. This is what they (seeds) looked like after I opened the husky dried bracts/ Straw colored and elongated. Top right corner of your picture.

Yes, they were prickly. I did not see any spherical shapes while counting them out for the swap like you showed me in the lower right corner.

I'm sorry, but those aren't seeds. The stuff in the "Top right corner" of that DG photo is chaff and broken, emptied seed pods.

Like I mentioned, the photo shows intact seed pods on the left and the actual seeds are shown in the lower right corner.

The seed pods (which contain the seeds) are elongated but the seeds are not.

The seeds are shaped sort of like a lentil (sort of roundish to egg-shaped viewed from the top, somewhat flat but not paper thin viewed from the side.) They range from a pale straw to tan color and have a rough texture.

The seed pods (which contain the seeds) are hard, tan colored and look sort of like a chocolate eclair (minus the chocolate frosting...dang, now I want a chocolate eclair! ) The top end will be pointed. The seed pods must be split open from the pointed top to reveal the seeds inside.

Also, regarding what names to use for the seed swap or for uploading photos to the database...
When you don't actually know the cultivar name of a plant, you always want to use the plain species name (Crossandra infundibuliformis.) You can then add a note in the comments section like, "Cultivar unknown but looks similar to 'Orange Marmalade'."

Firecracker Flower (Crossandra infundibuliformis)

I hope that helps some. I know that this is a frustrating seed search. Although I've been saving seeds for most of my life, I found Crossandra to be a really tricky one to master.