Question: What are the main different ways plants get their seeds dispersed?

Jennifer Bates answered on 15 Nov 2016:

There a quite a few different ways!

The plant can do it itself, called ‘autochory’ – it can send out a stem to creep over the ground with a seed and the stem then dies off (called ‘blastochory’), or it could make the seed crawl away using the microscopic hairs (called ‘herpochory’).

It could use gravity (‘barochory’), and drop and roll away, like a coconut would (watch out below!).

Some plants though do things with style and explode! The exploding cucumber (Ecballium elaberium) lives up to its name and erupts everywhere! These kinds of plants use turgor pressure to send out their seeds ballistically! Splat!

Others are sneaky and use someone or something else. Some float away on the wind, like dandelion seeds, other on the water like a water lilly (or those that have used gravity and are by the sea like a coconut). And some have evolved hooks to latch onto fur and are whisked away by animals. Some plants are a bit gross and rely on being eat by animals and the are dropped far away in their poo.

And finally you could say humans are one of the ways seeds are now moving around. Some plants have been so domesticated they rely on us to help them move and even reproduce, like some of our cereal species.

Are plants awesome? (especially the exploding cucumber!)