SeedDispersal

Needs of PlantsPlants have needs that help them survive. These needs include light, water, and space to grow.

Plants can’t grow too close together because overcrowding may cause them to die. When plants are overcrowded, many plants are sharing the same amount of light and water. Plants have to send their seeds away so new plants will grow away from the parent plant.

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Seeds move and travel.A flowering plant’s fruit holds the seed of the plant. The plant’s fruit can help in moving the seeds away from the parent plant. Look at the pictures below. What fruits do you see here?

Let’s look at the fruit of the maple tree more closely. The wing portion

around the seed is the fruit.3

There are many different ways fruits are moved to new locations. A plant moves its seed by seed dispersal, which means spreading or scattering.

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Fruits may be dispersed by

wind,

water,

animals,

or force.

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The wind disperses seeds. Wind is one way seeds can be dispersed. The wind can move some seeds miles away. The new plants that grow will have more space to grow. They will also be able to better meet their other needs, like light and water.

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Some fruits have wings that allow them to be dispersed by air. The wings on the fruit help the fruit “fly” to a new location to grow.

The fruit of the elm tree helps the seed glide on the wind.

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Some fruits have parachutes that carry them far away on the wind. Dandelion and milkweed fruits have parachutes that allow them to soar. Have you ever blown the parachutes off a dandelion plant?

Dandelion

Milkweed

Dandelion and milkweed fruits have parachutes.

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Other fruits have spinners that rotate in the wind. The way they spin allows them to remain in the air. Then the wind blows them far from the parent plant.

Ash

Maple

The fruits of a maple tree and an ash tree

have spinners.

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Water disperses seeds.Some plants grow near water, and they use the water to move their fruits. The fruits that hold the seeds float on the water. They can float because they are waterproof. The water moves the seeds to a new place to grow.

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Coconut trees are found on beaches near the ocean. The ocean carries the fruit of the coconut tree and its seed to new locations to grow.

Willow trees grow on riverbanks. The river disperses the fruits from this tree to new locations.

Coconut

Willow

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Animals disperse seeds. Animals help plants disperse their seeds. A fruit may have hooks, barbs, or burrs. The fruit sticks to fur, feathers, or clothing of an animal. The fruit then moves with the animal. The fruit is licked, shaken, or picked off. It drops onto the soil in a new location, and the seed can grow.

Burdock has a fruit with hooks.

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An animal also can eat the fruit of a plant, and the seed drops to the ground in the animal’s waste. A plant may now begin to grow in this new location.

Birds eat cherries.

Bears eat raspberries.

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Plants throw their seeds.Some plants move their seeds with force. The jewelweed plant is an example of a plant that has pods with seeds. When one of the pods is moved it explodes open, and this throws its seeds away from the plant. This scatters the seed to a new location.

Jewelweed Plant

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Fruits are unique.There are many different fruits which move seeds from place to place in different ways. When you see a fruit of a plant, examine it closely. The properties of the fruit will give you some clues about how it disperses its seeds.

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Correlation

Written under funding from Monroe 2–Orleans BOCES by:

Antonietta Quinn, Resource Teacher Ashlee Bryant, Reading Specialist Kristen Giuliano, Reading SpecialistPaulette Reddick, Reading SpecialistDesigned and Printed by the BOCES 2 Printing and Graphics Services.

Plant and Animal Life CyclesSeed Dispersal