The Surprising Systems of Seed Spreading
Have you ever wandered around your yard and thought to yourself, “How did that plant get there?” It might be the only plant that looks like that in your entire yard. Your neighbors don’t have that plant, nor does the office where you work, and it isn’t going to your kids' school. So where did it come from? The answer might surprise you.
Seeds are the beginning of a plant's life cycle, but a checklist of crucial steps needs to be taken to start their life cycle. First, the seed needs to be viable and mature. Second, it must get to a favorable location. Third, environmental conditions such as moisture, temperature, and light must all be in the ideal range for that species to grow. This article will discuss that second step. If there were a term that would describe this second step, it would be “seed dispersal.”
Wind Dispersal of Seeds: Anemochory Explained
When thinking of seed dispersal, an image of a dandelion seed flying in the wind might come to mind. Anemochory is a term that describes seeds that are dispersed by wind. Seeds have developed special adaptations to aid them in taking flight in the breeze, some even having the ability to travel miles away from the mother plant. Milkweeds have light fluff that expands, acting as a parasail, and catches a gust of wind. Cottonwoods, willows, asters, and thistles have a modified plant structure that helps them fly away.
Winged Seeds: Spinning Their Way to the Ground
There is another way plants can use the wind to disperse seeds, which isn’t a giant sail in the wind. Another wind-powered adaptation that seeds utilize is wings. Instead of flying miles and miles away, these wings allow the seeds to fall up to a couple hundred meters away. Maples, elms, and ash tree seeds have this plant structure. These seeds can be seen spinning to the ground in the spring season.
Animal Dispersal of Seeds: Food for Travel
Not all seeds can be carried through the air on the wind; some must be eaten before they take to the air. Brightly colored berries are another strategy that plants have devised to disperse their seeds. Honeysuckle, magnolias, winter berries, and roses utilize this plant adaptation. Enclosing their seeds in a tasty treat for wildlife ensures that the seeds get taken from the mother plant to a different location.
Hitchhiking Seeds: Hooks, Burrs, and Stickers
Being eaten isn’t the only way seeds can catch a ride on a wild beast. Some seeds have developed a morphologically distinct plant appendage that acts as a hook or many hooks. These hooks latch onto fur and clothes to travel to a faraway land with the animal. Spanish needles, sandbur grass, water hemlock, cockleburs, and beggar-ticks can be found on the backs of cattle, pets, and your socks after walking through an area they have colonized.
Exploding Seeds: Plants That Launch Their Offspring
Perhaps one of the most interesting seed dispersal tactics is the ones that explode. That’s right. Some seeds have developed a mechanism to shoot their seeds away from the mother plant. By manipulating the water potential to an extreme degree, it only takes something brushing against it slightly to trigger the seeds to shoot out like a missile. Mistletoe, impatience, wood sorrel, and witch hazel are all examples of plants that can shoot their seeds.
Seeds that can disperse away from the parent plant are an evolutionary adaptation that keeps new seedlings out of competition with the mother plant and increases its chance for survival. So, that unknown plant growing in your yard could’ve hitched a ride on your clothes or shoes, been deposited by a bird, or blown in with the wind.
by Markis Hill, Horticulture Ornamentals and Turf Agent, 2025