I found these seeds on two different locations in parks here in Antwerp. They have an interesting, solid wooden consistency so I took some home.

I don’t know what plant they are from so today I wondered if an AI chatbot could help me identify the tree.

I tried three different AI chatbots:

1. ChatGPT wants me to go back to where I found them and take pictures of the tree, needles or leaves. No better suggestion than a “cypress-type conifer” on what tree it could be from.
2. Claude was very confident. “These are acorns — specifically the caps (cupules) and fragments of acorns from an oak tree (Quercus species).” Very funny.
3. Gemini did put in the most effort and came pretty close, suggesting it could be from a Dove tree which also has ribbed seed pods, like the ones I have here, but still very dissimilar.

So I still don’t know what tree these pods are from. Looks like I’ll have to take pictures of the tree and it’s leaves, the next time I’m at the park 😉.