Growing plants from seeds in hydroponics

8. How do seeds move?

Seeds are small packages of plant material that grows within the flower and contains the recipe for starting another plant like the one it is formed in. Seeds a way for a plant to reproduce, or have children.

There are many kinds of seeds. Dry beans and peas are types of seeds. Some fruits like tomatoes and berries, have seeds in the food.

Seeds move in mysterious ways.

Many seeds have a better chance of surviving and growing into a plant if they move to a new place. In they all stayed under the plant it could become too crowded and none of the seeds could grow into full size plants.

Some seeds are carried in a pod (a covering for one or more seeds). Some pods explode like miniature bombs and leaves seeds far from the mother plant. Examples are violet, bluebonnet, phlox, and touch-me-not.

Some seeds can be carried by the wind. This includes plants like thistle that have seeds that are very light and float or fly in the air. Thistle seeds have blown as far as 1000 miles away from the mother plant.

Some seeds (such as tumbleweed) move by blowing along the ground, or carried by water such as a river or a lake.

Some seeds (like berries) attract birds and other animals that carry the seeds on their feet or hair or even eaten and discarded in the waste. Some, like burrs, are caught on fur and carried long distances by animals.

Squirrels and other nut gathering animals often bury their seeds in caches or holes in the ground, and some of these grow into plants. In some areas of the world, the squirrels may plant more trees than mankind.

There are seeds that crawl along the ground. One grass has a seed that has a covering of stiff hairs than move over the ground when damp.

Activity

With modeling supplies (colored clay, construction paper, felt tip pens, and scissors) create a seed for each type. You can use a seed that you know exists, or create a new type. You can get help from anyone in the room, or from anything in the room.

A type of seed that will be gathered by a squirrel

A type of seed that will be carried by the wind.

A type of seed that will be carried by an animal or a bird

A type of seed that will be carried by water.

A type of seed that will roll or travel on the ground.

A type of seed that travels by exploding.

Draw each type of seed model in your lab notebook and explain how it is supposed to move.

Once your group has completed the models, place the models onto the side shelf.

Draw some other students models in your lab notebook and guess how it is supposed to be carried.

Each person in the room shows one of the models and tells how they expect it to move and why. This can be your own design or someone else's.