I'm not really sure if they are plant related, I kind of think they come from and animal but I really have no idea!





As you can see, they're tiny!
They each have one small hole, and are hollow, some of them still have dirt in the hole, that's why some look like they have a dark spot.
They're round but not perfectly round, kinda flat on the side with the hole.
They are hard as rocks! I mean I can't even crush one between my nails, it takes some serious force to break on!
I find them in losely scattered piles, on top of, and just beneath soil level.
They're very common, but hard to spot.

My first thought was insect eggs of some sort.

look around the seeds of the fruit are, What kind of fruit-bearing trees there grow

bamira said:look around the seeds of the fruit are, What kind of fruit-bearing trees there grow

None grow near these ones I picked up, but I find them everywhere, open field, river bank, many locations that are far apart... I but think they are seed

They also remind me of the seeds from my bottlebrush tree but those in your photo are smaller and different in color.

I just bit one, it was tough, and didn't shatter, it squished it, it was HARD AND TOUGH, like biting a very thick fingernail

Could they be nodules from nitrogen fixing? Those seem so soft...

They kinda resemble Arisaema (Jack in the Pulpit) seeds too:
http://www.bing.com/images/sea...
http://www.bing.com/images/sea...
http://www.bing.com/images/sea...

Sway, do you know if you have any Jack in the Pulpit plants around your property?

Arisaema dracontium seed images:
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/HLA/Dun...
http://www.bing.com/images/sea...

Yea, plenty of aroid seeds to compare to, I know they bear a resemblance but they're not aroid seeds or any type, they're hollow, dry and obviously something left over, not a viable seed of any sort, and I really don't think they were ever seeds of anything.




These are alocasia seeds I just planted, they really look similar I know, but in person there's no mistake these aren't aroid seeds.

Do you or does anyone near you feed the wild birds?

Could it be millet seeds in which the lesser grain borer/
Rhyzopertha dominica hatched and chewed its way out?
This is a common pest in stored grain and seed.

I really don't think it's a seed... They're very distinct and I've never seen a seed like this, there's no way... If a radical and cotyledons were in in, they're never get out
It's just a small yellowish bead with a single round hole in one side...

I'm sorry to keep shooting these ideas down, especially the ones suggesting seeds.
I've spent many hours searching online, ( it's hard to know what to type to find them...)asked my friends that are avid outdoors people, some are old timers that have been around awhile...
I've come up with nothing! No one I've asked had even seen them before, but I spot them everywhere, mostly in my garden but that's just cuz I'm digging in it a lot and there's moist exposed eroding soil.
My best guess is they are a hatched egg or possibly some phase of growth of some insect and they shed this thing( possibly a shell) away.
I can't think of any bug with eggs anywhere near this hardness or toughness, most just pop with a gentle poke... My wife says the feel like bone beads...other day they look like fossils but they certainly are not!
I'll take more pics, maybe different light will help but I think this one may require someone who just knows what they are... Researching yields so many useless results.
It's been driving me nuts for years now!
Please feel free to suggest anything, or even suggest a better sub forum to post in.
I'm determined to find out what these little buggers are and how they got here!

Thanks!

maybe it is the pit of a small fruit? Like the fruit on the outside would have been eaten/rotted and this is the inside pit? Those are really hard.

You mean like a cherry?

Those shatter when crushed, these smash out like... I'm not even sure, like a thick fingernail or maybe plastic but with a frain(fibers)

Let me try for more pics

https://www.google.com/search?...

yeah, like a cherry or something?
I have never messed with them really, other than eating cherries of course. They are real hard-like wood. Maybe as the pit matures or dries out it gets harder?
I have black cherry trees in my yard that are HUGE. I was shocked when we bought the house and found out they were cherries because they were so large. Not only that, the trees have no 'flower' on them that is noticeable really and the fruit is worthless. Tiny and sour and all pit.

Too small to be anything like a prunus I think.

Here more pic, not sure they're better, I'd need a macro lens

well clearly I think they are too small to be cherry pits and you said earlier that they are hollow. That IS weird. I searched images of fungus and got nothing there either.

https://www.google.com/search?...

Does anyone in the area feed birds? Someone suggested millet. That is real tiny like that, but I don't know about the hard part. It sure does look like the pics though ?

Have you took any of these to your state extension office?

Have any plants died or got sick near where they are found? I'm not sure if they'd have a hole in one side but I'm wondering about fungal sclerotia. Check out southern blight (Sclerotium rolfsii) for an example in Google images.

Alternatively could they be spent fertilizer prills?

@JRsbugs, can you chime in please?