Seeds, Seed Pods and Buds

Went to Wakehurst Place this afternoon for a walk in the gardens and a visit to the Millennium Seed Bank there. The MSB is a fascinating place, with amazing scientific research going on, and of course it's full of extraordinarily beautiful sculptural forms: seeds and seed pods are Nature's artwork at its very best.
Fear of being got by the copyright police prohibits me from posting the images I'd like, but ...
here is one of my own images of a magnolia pod: initially almost like a slumbering dragon, most of its eyes still firmly shut, but some just beginning to open:

And then most of the eyes fully open, the seeds working their way out:

AMAZING!
And the potential and information seeds contain! Scientific observation (and legend) tells of seeds germinating after hundreds - some even thousands - of years, if kept under the right conditions. Mind blowing!

Buds inspire me with the same admiration:
have you ever stopped to think or look at what actually comes out of, i.e. what is essentially contained in, one single bud? A whole branch a metre long can grow in one year and a huge number of leaves. All contained in that simple, unassuming form (of course, as it was pointed out to me, it needs the right conditions to grow that ... but then don't we all?)

I like to similate this process when I work in clay, starting off with a tiny seed-like shape and gradually building on that, increasing the volume and definition (as illustrated in my initial exploration of the Acceptance theme on my Work In Progress page on my website [right at the very bottom]).