seed balln.
/ˈsiːd bɔːl/, U.S. /ˈsid ˌbɔl/, /ˈsid ˌbɑl/ 1. A roundish cluster of seeds or fruits.
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1682 N. Grew Anat. Plants iv. ii. iii. 169 In Mallow, Holyoak, and all of that kind, they are beset round about with little Thornes; whereby each looks like the Seed-Ball of Roman Nettle.
1852 Brit. Farmer's Mag. 21 504/1 Perhaps the best way is to let the flax be fully out of flower, the seed-balls well formed or set, and seed turning brown.
1930 Amer. Speech 6 10 Attempts have been made to produce seed balls which contain but one germ each.
1965 J. W. Voigt & R. H. Mohlenbrock Plant Communities S. Illinois ii. 120 Flowers appear about April and the seed-ball, a multiple type fruit, ripens in fall.
1995 Fortean Times June 56/1 The ‘strawberry’ inside is in fact a shrunken seed ball, with a core covered with tomato seeds encased in red jelly.
2010 B. Gregg & G. Billups Seed Conditioning II. xx. 281 The different flower or seed units or segments which have grown together to form this [beet] seed ball.
2. The fruit of a potato plant, a poisonous berry resembling a small green tomato; = potato apple n. at potato n. Compounds 2.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular vegetables > [noun] > root vegetables > potato > excrescence, bud, or fruit
eye?1440
potato apple1663
potato eye1733
eyehole1782
potato bean1805
potato ball1817
seed ball1821
1821 L. Bigelow Addr. Worcester Agric. Soc. 32 The Committee on Agricultural Improvements and Experiments..recommend the following Premiums:..to Joshua Richardson..for the best sample of Potatoes raised from seed-balls.
1871 Ann. Rep. Iowa State Agric. Soc. 227 The most promising early potato..is the Early Rose, originated..from a seed ball of the Garnet Chili.
1915 W. Stuart Potato Breeding & Select. (U.S. Dept. Agric. Bull. No. 195) 5 It would appear that many of his seedlings were produced from naturally fertilized seed balls.
1951 Circular U.S. Dept. Agric. No. 7 47 It is claimed that a variety known as American Giant was originated from..a seed ball of the Jackson potato.
2008 Times Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) (Nexis) 23 Sept. c3 The ones that flower usually produce round seed balls following bloom.
3. A ball of clay, compost, and seeds (or a similar device) used to disperse seeds artificially; = seed bomb n. at seed n. Compounds 3.
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1985 A. C. Clark From Orange Mailbox 91 Angelica might be ‘planted’ in odd spots about the county just by tossing these seed balls from the car on a rainy summer's day.
2003 New Internationalist Jan. 31/1 Central to his approach is the seed ball. He says: ‘All we do is wrap many kinds of seeds in clay balls and just keep sowing them.’
2011 R. Kaplan & K. R. Blume Urban Homesteading 51 Sometimes guerilla gardening can be as simple as lobbing a seed ball over a fence in the autumn, and surreptitiously watching the flowers bloom in the spring.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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