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Dispersal of Seeds by Animals
Dispersal of Seeds by Animals
Animals of all sorts and sizes help plants to disperse their seeds. The method they use depends
on the type of seed.
To attract the animals and birds and encourage them to act as seed carriers,
plants often surround their seeds with a brightly-coloured and sweet-tasting pulp.
In the deserts of North Africa, elephants eat the fruits that have fallen from the trees and deposit
the seeds in their droppings several miles away. In South American jungles, monkeys eat figs
and other fruit, carrying some away in their stomachs and dropping others onto the ground. In
Britain, foxes eat raspberries, squirrels eat nuts, blackbirds eat our strawberries, mice eat grass
seeds, and in South Africa, even ants carry seeds into their nests, eat the tasty outer covering
and leave the seeds to grow safely underground.
As well as eating them, some animals collect the fruits or seeds and bury them to eat later, but
forget about them and the seeds germinate in their new location. Sometimes, as in the case of
Mistletoe, the seeds are covered in a sticky slime which the birds rub off on a new tree. Even
humans carry seeds far away for plants - by taking an apple on a picnic, for example, and
throwing the core, with its seeds, into the bushes.
When animals take fruits or seeds for food, they act as willing transporters of the plant's seeds.
Sometimes, the plants make use of animals to carry their seeds without giving them any reward.
Many plants produce fruits or individual seeds covered in hooks or spines which attach the seed
to the animals's fur or feathers - or, in the case of humans, to our clothes or bags. The seeds are
then carried a sufficient distance from the parent plant to give them space to grow. Eventually, the
seed may fall off, or be rubbed off by the animal.
The most well-known plant of this type that we have in the UK is probably Goose Grass or Sticky
Weed, which children throw at one another in a game, but in other countries there are larger such
hitch-hikers which can damage animals when they become lodged between the animal's toes and
cause infection and lameness. There's more information about species in North and South
America that produce large hooked or prickly seedpods here.
Although seeds of plants that grow in water are obviously spread by water, there are many other
ways in which water plays a part in dispersing seeds.
Plants which grow beside water often rely on water to transport their seeds for them. They may
produce light seeds which float, or there may be fluff that helps buoyancy. Two tall trees, Willow
and Silver Birch, are often found in the middle of moorland, far from any other trees, but along the
course of a stream. They can colonise such isolated places because they both have very small,
light seeds, which can be carried by the wind or by water. Foxgloves and Harebells often grow
beside streams. They both have light seed that floats.
Trees found on tropical beaches often have their seeds carried there by the sea. They have
woody, waterproof coverings which enable them to float in the salty water for long periods.
Coconuts are well-known travellers, as is the famous Coco-de-mer, found only on the Seychelles,
but familiar before its origin was known from the giant seeds washed up on other tropical
beaches.
Mangroves are another familiar tree of tropical beaches. Their seeds are unusual in that they can
begin germination while still on the parent plant, and they drop into the ocean when about a foot
long. These 'sticks' float upright in the sea, waiting to be flung onto the beach to continue
germinating.
Seeds of some tropical trees can even be carried along by ocean currents to land on shores half
a world away. Sometimes Sea Beans, the seeds of Entada gigas, are carried from their homes
beside rivers in Africa, Australia or South America, across the ocean to land on European shores.
Water Dispersal
Fruits which float such as those of the water lily and the
coconut palm are carried by water.
Coconuts can travel for thousands of kilometres across seas
and oceans.
The original coconut palms on South Sea islands grew from
fruits which were carried there from the mainland by ocean
currents.
S eeds provide the vital genetic link and dispersal agent between successive
generations of plants. Angiosperm seeds are produced and packaged in
botanical structures called fruits which develop from the "female" pistils of
flowers. Immature seeds (called ovules) each contain a minute, single-celled
egg enclosed within a 7-celled embryo sac. The haploid (1n) egg is fertilized by
a haploid (1n) sperm resulting in a diploid (2n) zygote that divides by mitosis
into a minute, multicellular embryo within the developing seed. A second
sperm unites with 2 haploid polar nuclei inside a binucleate cell called the
endosperm mother cell which divides into a mass of nutritive tissue inside the
seed. In most seeds the embryo is embedded in this endosperm tissue which
provides sustenance to the embryo during germination. In exalbuminous seeds
(found in many plants such as the legumes), the endosperm tissue is already
absorbed by the time you examine a mature seed within the pod, and the 2
white fleshy halves in the seed are really the cotyledons (components of the
embryo). The 2 sperm involved in the double fertilization process originated
within the pollen tube that penetrated the embryo sac. The pollen grain (and
pollen tube) come from the "male" organs (called anthers) on the same plant or
different parental plants in a remarkable process known as pollination.
Pollination is also accomplished by the wind (or water), and it may also involve
insects in some of nature's most fascinating relationships between a plant and
an animal. This is especially true of the amazing fig trees and their symbiotic
wasps.
1. Gliders
2. Parachutes
3. Helicopters (Whirlybirds)
4. Flutterer/Spinners
5. Cottony Seeds & Fruits
6. UbiquitousTumbleweed
7. Miscellaneous
Note: The tree of heaven seed (D) actually spins along its longitudinal axis like
a rolling pin.
1. Gliders
G liders include seeds with 2 lateral wings that resemble the wings of an
airplane. They become airborne when released from their fruit and sail through
the air like a true glider. One of the best examples of this method is Alsomitra
macrocarpa, a tropical vine in the Gourd Family (Cucurbitaceae) native to the
Sunda Islands of the Malay Archipelago. Football-sized gourds hang from the
vine high in the forest canopy, each packed with hundreds of winged seeds.
The seeds have two papery, membranous wings, with combined wingspans of
up to 5 inches (13 cm). They reportedly inspired the wing design of some early
aircraft, gliders and kites. Although the seeds vary in shape, some of the most
symmetrical ones superficially resemble the shape of the "flying wing" aircraft
or a modern Stealth Bomber. According to Peter Loewer (Seeds: The
Definitive Guide to Growing, History, and Lore, 1995), the aerodynamic
seeds spiral downward in 20 foot (6 meter) circles, although a gust of wind
would probably carry them much farther away.
2. Parachutes
An individual parachute of western salsify (Tragopogon dubius) showing
an umbrella-like, plumose crown of hairs (pappus) above a slender one-
seeded fruit (called an achene). These fragile units can become airborne with
the slightest gust of wind, and can literally sail across valleys and over
mountain slopes.
I n some parachutes, the crown of silky hairs arises directly from the top of the
seed (not on an umbrella-like stalk). Again, the Sunflower Family (world's
largest plant family with about 24,000 described species) contains many weedy
representatives with this type of parachute seed. One of the most troublesome
weeds of farm land in the western United States is wild or thistle artichoke
(Cynara cardunculus). The large seed head of this weedy composite releases
hundreds of parachute seeds which fly through the air and invade vast areas of
grazing land with spiny, perennial bushes that literally take over. The large leaf
stalks (resembling giant celery stalks) are edible and are sold under the name of
"cardoon." Populations of wild artichoke often contain so much variation
between spiny and non-spiny plants, that some experts believe that they belong
to one variable species. In fact, some botanists believe that the cultivated
artichoke (C. scolymus) may be a cultivated variety of the wild C.
cardunculus. Incidentally, the delicious artichoke is really a cooked flower
head in which the outer bracts (phyllaries) and central basal portion (receptacle)
are dipped in butter and eaten.
Explosions
Some plants have pods that explode when ripe and shoot out
the seeds.
Lupins, gorse and broom scatter their seeds in this way.
Pea and bean plants also keep their seeds in a pod. When the
seeds are ripe and the pod has dried, the pod bursts open and
the peas and beans are scattered.
Fire
When fire occurs, animals have the ability to fly, run away or
burrow deep into the ground. Plants cannot do this and so have
adapted other ways of surviving.
Jack pines have cones that are held closed by a resin sensitive
to high temperatures. These cones will not open to release
their seeds until a critical temperature is reached.
Some species store their seeds in the soil until a fire reaches
the right heat for germination to be triggered. Again if the fires
are low intensity the parent plant may die but germination not
triggered. Fires are often deliberately lit in the bush to trigger
germination from soil seed banks and to kill weeds.
Unfortunately, sometimes these fires get out of control and
cause major damage.
Wind Dispersal
Some seeds are carried to a new place by the wind. These
seeds are very light.
The seeds of the orchid are almost as fine as dust.
Many have hairy growths which act like little parachutes and
carry the seeds far away from the parent plant.
The seeds of the dandelion are carried by the wind.
The seeds of the thistle are also carried away by the wind.
Both the dandelion and the thistle have hairy growths at the
top of the seed to carry the seeds far away from the parent
plant.
These seeds are also very light in weight.
Have you ever heard the saying
"As light as a thistle down "?
Well this is where it comes from.
The fruits of the sycamore have winged seeds and these are
also carried away by the wind.
The wind causes the ripe fruits of the poppy to sway.
This causes the seeds to fall out.
Animal Dispersal
Some plants have juicy fruit that animals like to eat.
The animal eats the fruit but only the juicy part is digested.
The stones and pips pass through the animal's digestive
system and are excreted to form new plants. This can be far
away from the parent plant.
Blackberry, cherry and apple seeds are dispersed in this way.
Birds also like to eat fruit and they help to disperse seeds to
other areas through their droppings.
Squirrels collect nuts like acorns and bury them for winter food,
but they often forget where they have buried them and these
grow into new trees.
Some fruits like that of the burdock plant have seeds with
hooks.
These catch on the fur of animals and are carried away.