I'm expecting! Viviparity in the garden

It’s been confirmed.  I’m having babies next year.  Lots of them!  While recently cutting back some untidy looking plants I came across seed heads of Silybum marianum, the milk thistle.  Naturally some were put aside with ideas of propagating more examples of this wonderful plant.  The following day while dissecting the heads to extract the seeds I spotted a flash of green (pictured), and then some more.  The impatient seedlings hadn’t waited to fall onto soil but had taken advantage of the warm, damp, conditions within the parent plant to germinate.

This process known as viviparity is not uncommon within plants, where the term derives from the Latin vivus, meaning ‘living’, and pario, meaning ‘give birth to’.  Keen gardeners can come across the phenomenon relatively frequently.  The best examples I have seen have been within tomatoes left on the vine into the autumn.  Strawberries with their external seeds - botanically referred to as ‘achenes’ - are often great examples too.  One other I've often spotted while out walking the dog is the wonderful seedheads of teasels.  Many a time I’ve spotted these with their own ‘nursery’ of germinating seedlings.