Pod People: specifically Green tea mania

I have a great attraction to all things pod-like.  Don't know what it is specifically but it's as though pods are sort of nature's boxes, inflatable organic gifts (ok, no big surprise what the gift is, seeds of course) but still the variety of shapes and sizes of pods that are available just dazzles me.

Here are a few that I enjoy before I get to the real rarity:

I was recently bopping around my potted green tea plants checking out this green fruit thing that feels like it's been hanging out there forever when I noticed it had split!


The lovely bright green seed pod exposed a creamy white center and brown seeds.  Pretty snazzy colors there Mother Nature!

Interestingly enough the pod itself was relatively soft and spongy (much less so a couple of days later)


Germinating green tea seeds to my understanding is somewhat tricky and needs to be done when they are ripe, therefore just dropped from the seed pod and not shriveled.  Many places simply take cuttings for tea propagation, but I suppose if I plan to live until I'm a 150 years old, I have time to make more green tea plants! (It doesn't take 150 years for a good tea plant to develop, it would just feel  like that to me mentally because I'm impatient!)


Here are some sources I found on germinating the seeds:
http://www.au.gardenweb.com/forums/load/ozherb/msg0301175628958.html
http://narien.com/store/teaseeds