Because plants cannot walk around and take their seeds to other places, they have developed other methods to disperse (move) their seeds. The most common methods are wind, water, animals, explosion and fire. Dandelion seeds float away in the wind.

When can a seeds disperse?

There are five main modes of seed dispersal: gravity, wind, ballistic, water, and by animals. Some plants are serotinous and only disperse their seeds in response to an environmental stimulus.

How does seed dispersal happen?

Seed dispersal

Some seeds are transported by the wind and are shaped to float, glide or spin through the air. Plants growing near a river may use the flowing water to transport their seeds. Some seed pods are designed to explode and throw the seeds a good distance from the parent plant.