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Epilobium hirsutum seed head dispersing seeds. In spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. [1] Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors, such as the wind, and living vectors such as birds.
Seeds can be dispersed away from the parent plant individually or collectively, as well as dispersed in both space and time. The patterns of seed dispersal are determined in large part by the specific dispersal mechanism, and this has important implications for the demographic and genetic structure of plant populations, as well as migration ...
The seeds are fleshy, short-lived, and germinate rapidly where they land. Being poisonous and distasteful, they are not attractive to candidate transport animals, so the rolling diaspore is a very effective dispersal strategy for such plants. Genera with this means of seed dispersal include Ammocharis, Boophone, Crossyne and Brunsvigia. [17]
Burs serve the plants that bear them in two main ways. Firstly, burs are spinescent and tend to repel some herbivores, much as other spines and prickles do. [3] Secondly, plants with burs rely largely on living agents to disperse their seeds; their burs are mechanisms of seed dispersal by epizoochory (dispersal by attaching to the outside of ...
Ants disperse seeds in fairly predictable ways, either by disposing of them in underground middens or by ejecting them from the nest. [2] These patterns of ant dispersal are predictable enough to permit plants to manipulate animal behaviour and influence seed fate, [13] effectively directing the dispersal of seeds to desirable sites. For ...
This rapid plant movement can achieve limited dispersal without the assistance of animals. A notable example is the sandbox tree (Hura crepitans), which can fling seeds 100 meters (300 ft) and has been called the "boomer plant" due to
Many plants have elaiosomes that attract ants, which take the seed to their nest and feed the elaiosome to their larvae. After the larvae have consumed the elaiosome, the ants take the seed to their waste disposal area, which is rich in nutrients from the ant frass and dead bodies, where the seeds germinate .
Many drupes, with their sweet, fleshy outer layer, attract the attention of animals as a food, and the plant population benefits from the resulting dispersal of its seeds. The endocarp (pit or stone) is sometimes dropped after the fleshy part is eaten, but is often swallowed, passing through the digestive tract , and returned to the soil in ...