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Seeds Honor Requirements
Ingenious Ways to Get Away
Anyone who has blown the fluffy seeds from a ripe dandelion or tossed an apple core onto the ground has unwittingly contributed to one of the most important missions in the plant world-seed dispersal. For without the dispersal of seeds to new locations young seedlings would be competing with their parent plants, often unsuccessfully, for sunlight, soil, water and nutrients, and the plant's success as a species could well be endangered.
Seed production and dispersal may not seem especially significant to those of us whose favorite part of a plant's life cycle is the flowering stage, but for the plant it is the ultimate goal. Flowers are just one step in the process; they are the plant's way of conceiving, fertilizing, and nurturing the tiny plant embryos as they develop into seeds.
Seeds are well adapted to house the plants next generation because they provide both nourishment and protection for the infant plant. An inner layer, surrounding the embryo, stores enough food to nourish the tiny plant when it first sprouts until its roots can take nutrients from the soil and it leaves can produce their own food.
The outer seed coat protects the embryo from drying out, freezing, and being destroyed by some animals. An apple seed is apt to be eaten, but its seed coat is relatively smooth and hard, so it passes through the animal's digestive system intact. Each kind of seed, no matter how tiny, has its own distinctive seed coat. A hand lens will reveal the ridges, indention, and sometimes tiny hairs that give its characteristic markings.
Plants don't move, so how can seeds travel? Among flowering plants, it is at this stage that the seed container plays a vital role, whether it is an apple, an acorn, or a coconut. Plants package their seed in whatever way best guarantees dispersal. Some seed containers serve as foods for humans or animals that eat them and either discard the seeds, or in storing them, carelessly leave some behind. Squirrels hide acorns and forget to retrieve them all. Cherry seeds pass unharmed through the birds that eat them. Humans til the soil and travel to all corners of the earth; we are primary dispersers of many seeds.
Some seeds have wings or blades to propel them through the air whichever way the wind takes them. Some grow parachutes of fluffy hairs, which enables the wind to sweep their seeds aloft. Other seeds have sharp hooks or barbs that attach to passersby. There are even seed containers with seams that burst open with such force the seeds explode from the parent plant. A few seed containers are buoyant and carry their seeds on the water to new destinations.
Thus dispersal of seeds is accomplished in a variety of ways, but they all attempt to achieve a common objective - distribution of the seed far enough away from the parent plant to reduce competition.
Anyone who has blown the fluffy seeds from a ripe dandelion or tossed an apple core onto the ground has unwittingly contributed to one of the most important missions in the plant world-seed dispersal. For without the dispersal of seeds to new locations young seedlings would be competing with their parent plants, often unsuccessfully, for sunlight, soil, water and nutrients, and the plant's success as a species could well be endangered.
Seed production and dispersal may not seem especially significant to those of us whose favorite part of a plant's life cycle is the flowering stage, but for the plant it is the ultimate goal. Flowers are just one step in the process; they are the plant's way of conceiving, fertilizing, and nurturing the tiny plant embryos as they develop into seeds.
Seeds are well adapted to house the plants next generation because they provide both nourishment and protection for the infant plant. An inner layer, surrounding the embryo, stores enough food to nourish the tiny plant when it first sprouts until its roots can take nutrients from the soil and it leaves can produce their own food.
The outer seed coat protects the embryo from drying out, freezing, and being destroyed by some animals. An apple seed is apt to be eaten, but its seed coat is relatively smooth and hard, so it passes through the animal's digestive system intact. Each kind of seed, no matter how tiny, has its own distinctive seed coat. A hand lens will reveal the ridges, indention, and sometimes tiny hairs that give its characteristic markings.
Plants don't move, so how can seeds travel? Among flowering plants, it is at this stage that the seed container plays a vital role, whether it is an apple, an acorn, or a coconut. Plants package their seed in whatever way best guarantees dispersal. Some seed containers serve as foods for humans or animals that eat them and either discard the seeds, or in storing them, carelessly leave some behind. Squirrels hide acorns and forget to retrieve them all. Cherry seeds pass unharmed through the birds that eat them. Humans til the soil and travel to all corners of the earth; we are primary dispersers of many seeds.
Some seeds have wings or blades to propel them through the air whichever way the wind takes them. Some grow parachutes of fluffy hairs, which enables the wind to sweep their seeds aloft. Other seeds have sharp hooks or barbs that attach to passersby. There are even seed containers with seams that burst open with such force the seeds explode from the parent plant. A few seed containers are buoyant and carry their seeds on the water to new destinations.
Thus dispersal of seeds is accomplished in a variety of ways, but they all attempt to achieve a common objective - distribution of the seed far enough away from the parent plant to reduce competition.
- Leaning about Seeds (search for seeds)
- Plant Seeds of Learning - Classroom Lessons Bring Plants to Life
- Dr. Biology's Virtual Pocket Seed Experiment - Experiment Packet (PDF)
- Time Traveling Plants
- Seed Dispersal
Seed Scavenger Hunt
Objective: To discover what seeds can be found outside and how they are dispersed.
Materials:
Materials:
- Seed Hunt cards - 1 for each team
- Bags for collecting
- Old wool socks
- Hand Lenses
- Two different seed containers that look good enough to eat. (Don't eat them yourself!)
- Two different seeds that travel a distance of three feet when you blow on them.
- Two different seeds that have hooks to stick to fur. (Put a wool sock on over one shoe and periodically check to see what seeds are hitchhiking a ride.)
- Two seed heads that have more than 20 seeds on them. Which one has the most?
- If there are trees nearby, look for two different seeds that are carried by wind; two seeds that animals might eat.
Nature Nugget about Seeds
- Milkweed pods with seeds in them are an excellent way to see how seeds travel. Give each Pathfinder a milkweed seed. Have them see how far they can make the seed go without letting it drop to the ground or using their hands.
- Dried zinnias are a good way to show children where seeds are on a flower and what their purpose is.
- Also the sunflower, if one is available, will show thousands of seeds. the sunflower can also be weighed and put on the radiator to dry out and then weighed again. The children love to use the word evaporation.
- Show the Pathfinders the difference between a fruit and seed. The fruit is around the seed.
- Find seeds from familiar plants. Have the Pathfinders match the seeds to their parent plants. Look closely at the shapes and designs of both. Briefly discuss how each type of seed might be dispersed.
