Examples Of Seed Dispersal Lab

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Lab Report for Seed Dispersal Lab- Preston Davis
Introduction:
When a plant is ready to reproduce, it must use a seed dispersal method to allow its seeds to have a better chance of growing in a suitable area away from the parent plant. Different plants have different methods of seed dispersal. For example, the Javan cucumber (Alsomitra macrocarpa) uses glider-shaped wings that are part of the seed to allow the seed to land far away from its origin. The main ways that seeds are dispersed are by water, animals, and wind.
One way that seeds are dispersed is by water. These seeds are protected by a thick outer layer to allow the inner parts of the seed to float through the water without being damaged. An example of seed dispersal by water can be …show more content…

In some cases, an animal will eat the seed, and because of a protective layer, the seed will not be damaged during digestion. When the animal then excretes the seed, the seed will have been transported to a location more suitable. Plants that use this method are the raspberry bush and the sea grape. In other cases, the seed will latch on to an animal’s fur, feet, or body, which is showed by many species of burrs.
The first method to seed dispersal is by wind. Common ways that seeds travel through the wind are helicopter shaped seeds, parachute like extrusions, wings, or balls, such as a tumbleweed. Helicopter shaped seeds, such as the whirling nut, use propeller-like protrusions from the seed to slow the falling time and rely on wind to carry them for long distances. The western salsify uses a parachute shaped structure that works like the helicopter method, except the parachute slows the seed down with the wind by catching the air. The Javan cucumber uses wings to glide in circular motions safely down to the forest …show more content…

The data for this lab was taken from Table 1. The highest time that was recorded for the glider method was only 4.10 seconds, and the longest distance traveled for the seed was 283 centimeters. Looking at Figure 1, time varied from 2.41 seconds to 4.10 seconds which indicates that 100% of the data for time was greater than the control group but less than five seconds. It can be inferred that using the glider method for seed dispersal increases the time taken for the seed to reach the ground. It can also be inferred that a different design for the glider could have made it possible to reach five seconds. According to Figure 2, there was a great variation in distance, ranging from 27 centimeters from the starting point to 283 centimeters. The variation shows the importance of the variance of the landing spots of the seeds in nature, because if all the seeds landed the same distance away from the point of origin, less seeds would have a chance of growing in a habitable area. About 30.4% of the trials had a greater distance traveled than the control group. A possible reason for the low amount of trials that surpassed the control group in distance was the lack of wind because of the tests being indoors. Also, wind could increase the time that the glider stays in the air, which

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