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Many aquatic (water dwelling) and some terrestrial (land dwelling) species use hydrochory, or seed dispersal through water. Seeds can travel for extremely long distances, depending on the specific mode of water dispersal; this especially applies to fruits which are waterproof and float on water. The water lily is an example of such a plant.
The patterns of seed dispersal are determined in large part by the specific dispersal mechanism, and this has important implications for the demographic and genetic structure of plant populations, as well as migration patterns and species interactions. There are five main modes of seed dispersal: gravity, wind, ballistic, water, and by animals.
Drift seeds (also sea beans) and drift fruits are seeds and fruits adapted for long-distance dispersal by water. Most are produced by tropical trees, and they can be found on distant beaches after drifting thousands of miles through ocean currents.
Hydrochory is seed dispersal by water. [13] Seeds can disperse by rain or ice or be submerged in water. Seeds dispersed by water need to have the ability to float and resist water damage. They often have hairs to assist with enlargement and floating. More features that cause floating are air space, lightweight tissues and corky tissues.
In leptosporangiate ferns, the fern catapults its spores 1-2 cm so they can be picked up by a second dispersal vector, often the wind. [4]Autochory is the dispersal of diaspores, which are dispersal units consisting of seeds or spores, using only the energy provided by the diaspore or the parent plant. [5]
More than one dispersal vector (abiotic or biotic) is thought to be involved in the majority of seed dispersal events (on average 2.15 dispersal vectors in Dutch ecosystems). [2] Seeds may be transported in turn by various animal or abiotic mechanisms such as wind or water. [1] [3]
Burs serve the plants that bear them in two main ways. Firstly, burs are spinescent and tend to repel some herbivores, much as other spines and prickles do. [3] Secondly, plants with burs rely largely on living agents to disperse their seeds; their burs are mechanisms of seed dispersal by epizoochory (dispersal by attaching to the outside of ...
This type of seed dispersal is termed myrmecochory from the Greek "ant" (myrmex) and "circular dance" (khoreíā). This type of symbiotic relationship appears to be mutualistic , more specifically dispersive mutualism according to Ricklefs, R.E. (2001), as the plant benefits because its seeds are dispersed to favorable germination sites, and ...