The the agent of dispersal are air,water,birds,animal,human etc. 1. Air:-winged seeds such as those of drumstick and maple and light seeds of grasses or hairy seeds of aak and hairy fruit of sunflower gets blown off with the wind to far away places. 2. Water:- fruits or seeds which are dispersed by water usually develop floating ability in the form of spongy or fibrous outer coat as in coconut. 3. Animals:-seeds that are dispersed by animals may be spiny seeds with hooks which get attached to the bodies of the animals and are Credit distant places.example xanthium and urena. 4. Bursting mechanism:- some seeds are dispersed when the fruits burst with sudden jerks.the seeds are scatterd far from the parent plant.example castor and blasam. 5. Birds and humans :- fleshy fruits are eaten and carried away by birds and humans to far away places. Example mango,apple etc.
There are five ways to seed dispersal. 1. wind dispersal, Some seeds are carried to a new place by the wind. These seeds are very light. 2. water dispersal, some 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 3, animal dispersal, 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 4. explosions, Some plants have pods that explode when ripe and shoot out the seeds.
Lupins, gorse and broom scatter their seeds in this way 5. 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. The way a plant stores its seeds and disperses them is an example of a fire adaptive strategy. The intensity of the fire ( it is important the fire reaches the right temperature) is crucial to the seeds dispersal. Also important is how often the fires occur.A number of species of pine have cones that only open after a fire. These are called serotinus
Nature has arranged some methods by which seeds of plants are scattered over large distance. This is called dispersal of seeds. Some seeds dispersed by wind. Seeds of the cotton and dandelion have tiny hairs surrounding them. The maple seeds have wings attached to it. These adaptations enable the seeds to be carried by the winds. Some seeds dispersed by water. The seeds and fruits of plants which grow in water or near it are dispersed by water. The coconut has a thick coat of fiber which enables it to float. It is carried to far off places by water. The lotus fruits have a spongy part because of which it can float in water.
Some seeds dispersed by animals. Human beings and animals eat some fruits and throw away the seeds. Some seeds have hooks or spines with which they stick to our clothes or to furry skins of animals. They get carried away to a long distance. Some seeds are eaten by birds and animals along with fruits. They pass out unharmed in waste. They germinate where they fall. Some seeds dispersed by explosion of fruits. The fruits of geranium, balsam or pea burst on dying. This causes seeds to be thrown away, rather than falling below the mother plants.
Seeds are dispersed by wind, and are often constructed to do that well, for example by having thin membranes attached to them (or feather-like structures) that float easily and far in the wind. Some seeds are eaten by birds and are not easily digested by them, so that when the bird drops its fecal pellet, the seed can germinate and grow in its new habitat. The same thing happens with animals, although they probably don't disperse the seed over such a long distance as does the bird.
Seeds are commonly scattered by the wind but this is not the only way. Birds eat seeds and poop them out in other places. Some animals will gather seeds for food and plant them to hide them. Coconuts (yes they are seeds) can float in the ocean for years and wash up on shore long distances away. Farmers use machines to scatter them. Some seeds will stick to passing animals and fall off in other places (like fox-tail and other stickers). Heavy rains and floods can scatter seeds too.
Seeds can be dispersed through wind, water, explosion, insects or animals. For example, a coconut's seeds are dispersed via the water. A doublegees seeds are dispersed via explosion. A watermelon's seeds are dispersed via insects or animals and a kind of grasses seeds are dispersed via wind.
