In south central France we recently observed the harvest of a row crop that neither my brother-in-law or I could identify.

The unharvested plant was about 36"-42" tall and was being combined leaving about 18" of heavy stalk in the ground. The seed/grain was in a thin, papery pod about 2" - 3" long and <1/4" in diameter. Each pod contained about 10-15 small black seeds about 1/8" in dia. The pods were VERY fragile and simply picking them by hand would usually cause them to split open. The seeds had no discernable flavor or odor.

Any ideas?

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pot. welcome back Randy.

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Thanks Siduri!

Methinks it twarn't pot...wrong leaves.

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unless you smoke it or eat it we shall never know.....

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

I did eat it and nothing happened.

I know exactly what pot looks like too...you don't combine MJ either (at least not here).

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R Leo, I think this might be what is known as oilseed rape. It is used as a "break crop" to improve soil condition between cereal crops. The extracted oil might be canola oil. Other uses are for bio-desiel. Check here to see if it was you saw.http://www.ukagriculture.com/crops/oil_seed_rape.cfm

Thank you!

That is exactly what we saw; I was searching cereals and couldn't find anything remotely like it. There were a lot of fields of sunflower as well...is it also a break crop?

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Sunflower has many more uses so is probably more like a primary crop. Whole fields full of them must have been quite a sight.

That's exactly what I would have said, had I known the answer to the question...lol

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Most definitely a sight!

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it's a larch. The Larch.

The Sound of Music is playing in my head now...

I was in Europe as well, last month... While we were passing thru parts of France, we saw quite a few fields of sunflowers like this as well! Don't think I've ever seen so many in one place!

Mike

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MN and ND have fields of sun flowers like that.. probably more.. sure beats looking at corn or wheat all day.. and one will also notice how they do follow the sun. cool stuff.

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I got two acres planted like that that will be bushogged the day before Memorial day