PLANT

ADAPTATIONS
 SEED DISPERSAL IS
IMPORTANT IN PLANT
DIVERSITY…
DEFINITION OF TERMS:
Seeds - reproductive structures only produced by
spermatophytes (include flowering and cone
plants).
Spermatophytes – seed-bearing plants
Ovules - structures that develop into seeds after
fertilization in plants. Later, these seeds serve as
dispersal units through which plants undergo
growth and fertilization.
Dispersal - means scattering and distribution.
Azoochory is an abiotic
dispersal mechanism.

Zoochory is the biotic

dispersal mechanism.
Seed Dispersal by Wind (Anemochory)
Seeds may float on the breeze or
flutter away on the wind.
Gliders resemble the wings of an airplane
Parachute seeds possess
slender achenes or seeds with
an umbrella-like crown of hairs
on the top, as in dandelion
seeds.
Helicopters or whirligigs include seeds with a
rigid or fibrous wing at one end, like maple
seeds.
Flutterers/Spinners include seeds with a
papery wing around the entire seed or at each
end.
Seed Dispersal by Water (Hydrochory)
Seeds float away from their parent plant.
Common in those plant which lives in water or nearby
the water bodies like beaches, lakes, ponds etc.
Waterborne seeds must possess the following
attributes:
• Seeds must have a strong and water-
impermeable shell to protect the seed embryo
against decomposition by the water.
• Seeds must be buoyant or possess air pockets in
order to float on the water until or unless the shell
remains intact.
• Parent trees must produce seeds near the water
bodies to undergo water dispersal.
Seed Dispersal by Explosion (Autochory)
Physical and explosive discharge of seeds from
the fruit.
A mechanism where plants disperse seeds by
their own, without any external factors.
Ballochory - seedpods split open and eject their
seeds from the parent plant. It involves
explosive dehiscence of fruits due to changes in
the turgor pressure and internal tension.

Barochory - fruits fall on the ground by the

effect of gravity and further water, animals,
birds etc., translocate the seeds and fruits to
new sites.
Seed Dispersal by Animals (Zoochory)
Seed Dispersal by Birds (Ornithochory)
Epizoochory – where seeds indirectly
adhere to the fur of animals and birds
and thereby translocate into new
locations

Endozoochory - animals and birds

directly ingest the fleshy fruits and
disperse seeds in the form of animal
defecates and bird droppings.
Myrmecochory is the seed dispersal mechanism carried out by
the ants.
Ants carry seeds of myrmecochorous plants. They feed on the
lipid-rich attachment around the seed called an elaiosome and
later discard the seed in underground middens.
Seed Dispersal by Humans (Anthropochory)
Humans can transfer seeds to new locations through the
following methods:
1. By employing different cultivation and vegetative methods for
plant propagation. Farming and gardening cause the recreation
of plants.

2. Seeds stuck to the clothes, fabrics or hairs serve as the

indirect means of seed dispersal, in which the humans transfer
seeds into new sites after rubbing the seeds.

3. Public transports and automobiles are other means of seed

dispersal.
WHY SEEDS NEED TO
BE DISPERSED?