People Planted Those Mystery Seeds from China & Here’s What Grew
We told you a while ago about the trend of people receiving through the U.S. Mail packages they had not ordered--mysterious seeds, usually labelled as jewelry.
There were warnings about ingesting or planting the seeds, since they had originated in another country. There were concerns about potential pests or disease. Well, some folks ignored all the warnings and concerns and went ahead and planted the seeds anyway. The harvest has produced some interesting results. And it's also tapped into a vein of rich comedy on Twitter and other forms of social media.
First the real results, this one from someone in Cincinnati:
Some commenters identified them as morning glory. Then, the jokesters on the Internet got busy with the "results" that THEY had produced from planting the seeds:
According to an article in iflscience.com, an expert connected the seeds to a variety of quite common plants "including mustard, cabbage, morning glory, and some herbs like mint, sage, rosemary, lavender, then other seeds like hibiscus and roses."
The USDA says the probable explanation behind the seeds arriving here from China is an online scam known as brushing, in which "people receive unsolicited items from a seller who then posts false customer reviews to boost sales."