Dispersal of Fruits and Seeds
Both fruits and seeds possess attractive colour, odour, shape and
taste needed for the dispersal by birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, ants and
insects even earthworms. The seed consists of an embryo, stored food material
and a protective covering called seed coat. As seeds contain miniature
but dormant future plants, their dispersal is an important criterion for
distribution and establishment of plants over a wide geographical area. The
dissemination of seeds and fruits to various distances from the parent plant is
called seed and fruit dispersal. It takes place with the help of ecological
factors such as wind, water and animals.
Seed dispersal is a regeneration process of plant populations and
a common means of colonizing new areas to avoid seedling level competition and
from natural enemies like herbivores, frugivores and pathogens.
Fruit maturation and seed dispersal is influenced by many
ecologically favourable conditions such as Season (Example: Summer), suitable
environment, and seasonal availability of dispersal agents like birds, insects
etc.
Seeds require agents for dispersal which are crucial in plant
community dynamics in many ecosystems around the globe. They offer many
benefits to communities such as food and nutrients, migration of seeds across
habitats and helps spreading plant genetic diversity.
The individual seeds or the whole fruit may be modified to help
for the dispersal by wind. Wind dispersal of fruits and seeds is quite common
in tall trees. The adaptation of the wind dispersal plants are
·
Minute seeds: Seeds are minute, very small, light and with inflated
covering. Example: Orchids.
·
Wings: Seeds or whole fruits are flattened to form a wing. Examples:
Maple, Gyrocarpus, Dipterocarpus and Terminalia
·
Feathery Appendages: Seeds or fruits may have feathery
appendages which greatly increase their buoyancy to disperse to high altitudes.
Examples: Vernonia and Asclepias.
·
Censor mechanisms: The fruits of many plants open in such a
way that the seeds can escape only when the fruit is violently shaken by a
strong wind. Examples: Aristolochia and Poppy.
Guess!! Who am I…….? I am dispersed by ant and I have caruncle.
Dispersal of seeds and fruits by water usually occurs in those
plants which grow in or near water bodies . Adaptation of hydrochory are
·
Obconical receptacle with prominent air spaces. Example: Nelumbo.
·
Presence of fibrous mesocarp and light pericarp. Example: Coconut.
·
Seeds are light, small, provided with aril which encloses
air.Example: Nymphaea.
·
The fruit may be inflated. Examples: Heritiera littoralis.
·
Seeds by themselves would not float may be carried by water
current. Example: Coconut.
Birds and mammals, including human beings play an efficient and
important role in the dispersal of fruit and seeds. They have the following
devices.
i. Hooked fruit: The surface of the fruit or seeds have
hooks,(Xanthium), barbs (Andropogon), spines (Aristida) by
means of which they adhere to the body of animals or clothes of human beings
and get dispersed.
ii. Sticky fruits and seeds:
a. Some fruits have sticky glandular hairs by which they
adhere to the fur of grazing animals. Example: Boerhaavia and Cleome.
b. Some fruits have viscid layer which adhere to the beak of
the bird which eat them and when they rub them on to the branch of the tree,
they disperse and germinate. Example: Cordia and Alangium
iii. Fleshy fruits: Some fleshy fruits with conspicuous
colours are dispersed by human beings to distant places after consumption.
Example: Mango and Diplocyclos
Some fruits burst suddenly with a force enabling to throw seeds to
a little distance away from the plant. Autochory shows the following
adaptations.
·
Mere touch of some plants causes the ripened fruit to explode
suddenly and seeds are thrown out with great force. Example: Impatiens (Balsam),
Hura.
·
Some fruits when they come in contact with water particularly after
a shower of rain, burst suddenly with a noise and scatter the seeds.Examples: Ruellia
and Crossandra.
·
Certain long pods explode with a loud noise like cracker,
scattering the seeds in all directions. Example: Bauhinia vahlii
(Camel’s foot climber)
·
As the fruit matures, tissues around seeds are converted into a
mucilaginous fluid, due to which a high turgor pressure develops inside
the fruit which leads to the dispersal of seeds.
Example: Ecballium elatrium (Squirting cucumber) Gyrocarpus
and Dipterocarpus.
Seed Ball : Seed ball is an
ancient Japanese technique of encasing seeds in a mixture of clay and soil
humus (also in cow dung) and scattering them on to suitable ground, not
planting of trees manually. This method is suitable for barren and degraded
lands for tree regeneration and vegetation before monsoon period where the
suitable dispersal agents become rare.
Guess? what is atelochory or Achory?
March 21 - World forest day
April 22 - Earth day
May 22 - World bio diversity day
June 05 - World environment day
July 07 - Van Mohostav day
September 16 - International Ozone day
·
Seeds escape from mortality near the parent plants due to
predation by animals or getting diseases and also avoiding competition.
·
Dispersal also gives a chance to occupy favourable sites for
growth.
·
It is an important process in the movement of plant genes particularly
this is the only method available for self-fertilized flowers and maternally
transmitted genes in outcrossing plants.
·
Seed dispersal by animals help in conservation of many species
even in human altered ecosystems.
·
Understanding of fruits and seed dispersal acts as a key for
proper functioning and establishment of many ecosystems from deserts to
evergreen forests and also for the maintenance of biodiversity conservation and
restoration of ecosystems.
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