The Pod-people have arrived?

Have the pod-people arrived???? noooooo they are....water-rolled Weed Balls

Today I had reason to review some historical journals, looking for the first record of Japanese Barberry in Nova Scotia. Our library at the Nova Scotia Museum houses these leather-bound journals. The one of note today is the Transactions of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science. The volume is XI, p.667 and dated May 1906. Written by AH McKay, the short note describes these odd tightly coiled balls of seaweed.

I remember seeing my first amongst the odds and sods specimens in the Museum Collections 20 some years ago when I first started. They are intriguing…tightly rolled masses of plants churned by wind and water and cast upon the shore. The top ones are from Washabuck Lake Lunenburg Co. and contain lots of spruce needles as well as stems and leaves. The lower ones were collected from the coast and are entirely seaweed.

Most of these reach 10cm. The sun bakes them as they lie upon the stones. Wind blows the water into waves of energy rolling the plant matter until it forms these masses.

Winter seems to offer more of these than spring and summer. Have you found any?

*Photo by Marian Munro.