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Epilobium hirsutum seed head dispersing seeds. In spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. [1] Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors, such as the wind, and living vectors such as birds.
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.
Over 100 species of vascular plants use this dispersal method for their fruit. [26] Many plants have evolved with specific adaptations to maximize the distance that seeds, fruits, or propagules are dispersed in the ocean. To better protect them against sinking in the water column, some seeds have developed hair or slime on their outer seed ...
These patterns of ant dispersal are predictable enough to permit plants to manipulate animal behaviour and influence seed fate, [13] effectively directing the dispersal of seeds to desirable sites. For example, myrmecochores can influence seed fate by producing rounder, smoother diaspores that inhibit ants from redispersing seeds after ...
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 animals). [5] Spinescent plants repel herbivores mechanically by wounding the herbivore's mouth or digestive system.
Longer dispersal distances and potentially larger ecological consequences follow from sequential endochory by two different animals, i.e. diploendozoochory: a primary disperser that initially consumes the seed, and a secondary, carnivorous animal that kills and eats the primary consumer along with the seeds in the prey's digestive tract, and ...
Thus, the foxtail is a type of diaspore or plant dispersal unit. Some grasses that produce a foxtail are themselves called "foxtail", also " spear grass ". They can become a health hazard for dogs , cats , and other domestic animals, [ 1 ] and a nuisance for people.
More experimental field studies on plant-animal interactions regarding seed dispersal need to be conducted [9] [14] for a thorough understanding of seed dispersal syndromes. There is limited knowledge about the presence of elaisomes and ant behaviour affecting seed dispersal, and how ant-plant interactions evolved under various plant traits. [8]