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Epilobium hirsutum — Seed head. In the broadest sense, dispersal occurs when the fitness benefits of moving outweigh the costs. There are a number of benefits to dispersal such as locating new resources, escaping unfavorable conditions, avoiding competing with siblings, and avoiding breeding with closely related individuals which could lead to inbreeding depression.
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.
The name derives from the Ancient Greek word pappos, Latin pappus, meaning "old man", so used for a plant (assumed to be an Erigeron species) having bristles and also for the woolly, hairy seed of certain plants. The pappus of the dandelion plays a vital role in the wind-aided dispersal of its
Many Taraxacum species produce seeds asexually by apomixis, where the seeds are produced without pollination, resulting in offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant. [ 10 ] In general, the leaves are 5–25 centimetres (2.0–9.8 in) long or longer, simple, lobed-to-pinnatisect, and form a basal rosette above the central taproot.
Achenes of a dandelion . In botany, a diaspore is a plant dispersal unit consisting of a seed or spore plus any additional tissues that assist dispersal. In some flowering plants, the diaspore is a seed and fruit together, or a seed and elaiosome. In a few plants, the diaspore is most or all of the plant, and is known as a tumbleweed.
Dandelion seeds are adapted to wind dispersal. A dispersal vector is an agent of biological dispersal that moves a dispersal unit, or organism, away from its birth population to another location or population in which the individual will reproduce. [1] [2] These dispersal units can range from pollen to seeds to fungi to entire organisms.
The pappus surrounds the ovary and can, when mature and attached to a seed, adhere to animal fur or be carried by air currents, aiding in seed dispersal. The whitish, fluffy head of a dandelion, commonly blown on by children, consists of numerous seeds resting on the receptacle, each seed attached to its pappus. The pappi provide a parachute ...
It is uncommon for pathogens to be transmitted from the plant to its seeds (in sexual reproduction or in apomixis), though there are occasions when it occurs. [2] [page needed] Seeds generated by apomixis are a means of asexual reproduction, involving the formation and dispersal of seeds that do not originate from the fertilization of the embryos.