Expert Member D Dispersal of seeds

Dispersal of fruits and seeds is very important because the seeds need to have favorable condition to grow into a healthy seedling. Imagine what will happen if all the seeds are planted at the same area, they will be competing for sunlight, water and nutrients which will result in poor growing condition!

There are 4 main methods of dispersal

• By animals
• By the wind
• Self dispersal
• By water

Animal Dispersal:

Animals can disperse seeds in two main ways:

1. Fruits and seeds can get stuck in animal body, furs, feathers or claws and it will be disperse as the animals move around. Fruits and seeds that disperse seeds this way usually have some sort of hook structure so that they can attach themselves to the animal body easily.

2. Another method is by ingestion fruits. Afterwards, the seeds which can’t be digested will be a passed out as faeces. This is the reason why plants produce fruits. It is because the fruits are intended to attract animals by eating and later help disperse their seeds through passing them out. This is also why fruits are often bright in colours.

Wind Dispersal:

The kind of seed which can be dispersed by wind are smaller seeds that have wings or other hair-like or feather-like structures. Plants that produce wind blown seeds, like the dandelion produce lots of seeds to ensure that some of the seeds are blown to areas where the seeds can grow.

Water Dispersal:

Plants living along streams, rivers and seas have seeds that float downstream and therefore become germinate at new sites. The size of the seed is not a factor in determining whether or not a seed can float. Some very large seeds, like coconuts, can float. Some small seeds also float.

Self dispersal:
Some plants do not reply on other helps but instead, they "shoot" seeds out of pods to help disperse the seeds around. The seeds can travel quite a few feet from the plant through this method.