How does seeds travel

When the fruit hits the ground, it will either break open and release its seeds, or roll away and break down in a new spot. Sometimes seeds can get carried away with a gust of wind.

Unlike seeds in fruit, these seeds are light and have special structures that allow them to float on the wind. Sometimes seeds move around using streams or rivers. These seeds have a tough or waxy outer coating to prevent them from absorbing water and they can usually float. This is the method used by plants that live in water, like water lilies, or that grow near water, like coconuts. Going with the flow - The seeds of some plants that live in the water, or close to it, can float.

A good example is the coconut. A coconut falls from its mother plant onto the beach. When the tide comes up or there's a swell, the ocean picks up the floating seed. Ocean currents then take the seed to another beach, where it can grow into a coconut palm tree. Some seeds need a little help from animals. They have to be eaten first to get started. It might not seem like a great way to start life, but they end up in a pile of natural fertilizer to get a jump on germination.

Robins are a good example of a seed disperser. They eat the seeds of Poison Oak and Poison Ivy and later deposit them in a new place to grow. Humans are also seed dispersers. Rasberry and Blueberry seeds have for a longtime been carried and planted after person dines on these sweet fruits. Hard coatings allow them to pass through and emerge at the other end relatively unscathed.

Animals are also participants in a two-part arrangement that some plants have developed. For example, most nut trees simply allow their seeds to drop to the ground. The seeds are then carted away by squirrels, jays, and other animals.

Some are eaten; others are forgotten. The misplaced seeds are able to grow into mature plants away from the parent. Anyone who has made a wish on a dandelion flower has seen wind dispersal in action. The variety of designs plants have developed to harness the wind is staggering.

There are maple keys that spin and fly, cottonwood seeds that float gently, and dandelion seeds that fly along like tiny parachutes. If the wind is right, seeds from these plants can travel hundreds of miles. This is why plants that use wind dispersal produce so many seeds.

Other plants depend on the wind in different ways. Poppy seeds, for example, can hardly be called aerodynamic, but these plants still depend on the wind. The most common methods are wind, water, animals, explosion and fire.

Have you ever blown on a dandelion head and watched the seeds float away? This is wind dispersal. Seeds from plants like dandelions, swan plants and cottonwood trees are light and have feathery bristles and can be carried long distances by the wind.

With wind dispersal, the seeds are simply blown about and land in all kinds of places. To help their chances that at least some of the seeds land in a place suitable for growth, these plants have to produce lots of seeds.

Many plants have seeds that use water as a means of dispersal. The seeds float away from the parent plant. Mangrove trees live in estuaries.

If a mangrove seed falls during low tide, it can begin to root in the soil.