Seeds: Nature’s Bounty
“Remember: All the magic of creation exists within a single, tiny seed.” - Quote from the film, ‘Ferngully’.
All summer long, plants have been working hard, flowering, attracting pollinators, photosynthesizing, etc. for one overarching purpose: to produce seeds that will become next year’s plants. With such an investment in the next generation, plants have evolved many strategies to spread their seeds far and wide, ensuring that some will find a place where they can sprout, grow and thrive. See below to learn about 5 examples of the amazing adaptations and strategies that seeds have developed over time!
Strategy #1: Ride in an animal’s stomach
In fall, many shrubs are heavily laden with fruits and berries. Go for a hike along any drainage or gully to see chokecherry bushes drooping under the weight of their shiny purple-black fruit. American Wild Plums, Creeping Barberry (Mahonia) and Serviceberry bushes also produce sweet or sour fruit. And hidden away inside each tasty fruit is a seed! When a bear or bird eats the fruit, they carry the seed in their gut far from the parent plant, and deposit it with a big dollop of fertilizer in a distant place. Many of those chokecherry thickets may exist because a bear pooped on that very spot, once upon a time!
Photo: Juicy Chokecherries tempt wildlife into inadvertently spreading seeds.
Photo credit: Dave Sutherland
Strategy #2: Hitch-hike in fur or clothing
Some native plants - and a lot of non-native ones! - have sticky or prickly seeds that latch on to your shoe laces or a fox’s fur. They ride along until they fall off, or their host cleans them off, in a new location far from from their parent. Next time you pick burrs out of your dog’s fur, think about how you are helping spread seeds across the landscape!
Photo: Sweet Cicely is a native plant with long, thin black seeds that seem to stick to everything!
Photo credit: Dave Sutherland
Strategy #3: Ride the wind
Colorado sure has lots of wind! Many seeds harness wind power to move their seeds around the landscape. Smooth and Golden Asters, Dotted Gayfeather seeds look like miniature parachutes or badminton birdies, with lots of little tufted hairs to catch the wind. Maples, Box Elders, and many pines produce seeds with “wings” that help the seed helicopter to a new location. Milkweed and Cottonwood trees attach soft fluffy down to each seed; a windstorm can blow these seeds for miles. And the long, coiling tails of Mountain Mahogany not only catch the wind; they can drill the seed into the soil. The tails straighten when wet, then coil up again as they dry, creating a gentle twisting motion that helps the seed bury itself into the ground!
Photo: Little Bluestem grass seeds bear tufts to help the seeds blow in the wind.
Photo credit: Dave Sutherland
Photo: Mountain Mahogany seeds with long, coiled tails, waiting to get carried away by the wind.
Photo credit: Dave Sutherland
Strategy #4: Explode!
Some native flowers, like Wild Geraniums or Silvery Lupines, protect their developing seeds in little pods. As the pods dry out, they shrink, creating tension along the sutures holding them together. The stress builds up slowly, until…..POP! The pod ruptures suddenly, flinging its seeds in all directions. While drying lupine seed pods from my garden, I have seen them pop and throw the seeds up to 8 feet!
Strategy #5: Sacrifice some for the others
As winter approaches, many animals will cache food to survive the cold lean months ahead. Squirrels bury nuts around their territories. In the high country, jay-like Clarks Nutcrackers stash pine seeds in hidden locations. All winter long, they will return to their secret food stashes….but they will forget many of their buried treasures. Some plants take advantage of this behavior, producing more edible seeds than the animals can eat, and letting the squirrels plant the surplus. When spring arrives, the forgotten seeds can grow into new plants!
Photo: Beaked Hazelnuts rely on forgetful squirrels to spread their seeds.
Photo credit: Dave Sutherland
