Tsunami seed

Our local coastline is currently being littered with debris which was carried across the Pacific ocean from the 2011 tsunami that devastated parts of Japan's coast.  The other day I was walking along the beach and, in an area where debris has been washing up, found a piece of fruit that looked like nothing I'd ever seen.

Loquat pit/seed

Always the adventurer, I put my tongue to it in order to help identify it by its taste, but at that point it had been in the water too long and it was too salty to tell.  But I did make a mental note of what the fruit looked like (it was in fairly good shape) and removed the pit and brought it home.  Later that evening I went on the internet, searching for exotic fruits, and found out what it was:  A Japanese Loquat.

Since it was found in the area of tsunami debris, I'm wondering if this Japanese Loquat actually made it all the way from Japan to the California coastline.  If it was packaged until recently, or was just lucky enough to hitch a ride in something which kept it shielded from the elements, I suppose it's certainly possible.  

So today I planted it in a pot with some good soil and we'll see what, if anything, comes up.  The salt water may have damaged the pit, but I figure it's worth a try.  After all, fruit trees have spread throughout many tropical island chains by fruit and seeds being carried via the ocean and washing up elsewhere.  

So in a few weeks, perhaps I'll have a living souvenir of an earth-changing event.  It won't make up in any way for the awful things that happened that day and the subsequent environmental disaster which followed, but it might be nice to think that new life follows death; that renewal comes from the rubble and debris of disaster.  Maybe a little Japanese Loquat seedling will be one way that new start can be observed, and appreciated.