I've recently discovered that a particular area in my city is abundant in Anadenanthera trees, both Peregrina and Colubrina. I've searched the general area pinpointed in the academic work of a local bothanist (he catalogued most of the trees in the area, but their locations are given in a map divided in quadrants, so no specific spots are mentioned) and I'm pretty sure I found the right trees:





There are probably hundreds of pods, but they are waaay to high to be picked by hand. Sadly, the only tree that was small enough to be within reach had just one pod in it, so it probably fruited earlier than the others... go figure...

Now, there WERE some pods in the ground, but most of them had already opened up, so most seeds were taken over by some whitish fungus



As for the closed pods, most of them were soft, and the seeds were equally soft/green (or light brown at best)



So here are my questions:

1)When/how am I supposed to harvest these? Should I pick them from the trees? Should I get them just after they fall to the ground, before the fungus overtakes them?

2)Is there any way I could get rid of the fungus and still keep the seeds viable for use?

3)If I keep the soft pods in a drawer for a while, will they eventually get dry? Do the seeds keep maturing, like fruit picked from a tree?

4)What's the best way to store the seeds before I can get some calcium hydroxide?

5)And finally - I'm pretty sure these big pods are Anadenanthera, but what about the smaller pods I found nearby; are they simply that - small pods - or are they another species?