How Do Plants Disperse Seeds

Introduction

All plants must disperse seeds in order for the seeds to germinate in different areas, reduce competition, sustain the species, and increase survival rates. Germinate means for a seed to begin developing. If plants dropped seeds together by the roots of the parent plant, the young plants would struggle to grow with the challenge of competition for resources. Relocating seeds to other locations can increase the rate of survivability of a species if a disaster occurs. Plants then use different methods to disperse seeds including water, wind, and animals. Wind dispersal is usually utilized by plants with small, lightweight seeds. Trees produce seed with stiff wings or weightless fluff in order to catch the wind to carry the seeds.

Cut many, tiny slits around the edges of the circles about 2” into the circle.

Cut ¼” strips of paper out from portrait direction.

Tape together 2 circles by the flat center, creating 27 parachute tops.

Tape the strip of paper to the center of the bottom circle.

Place the bean at about 1” up from the bottom of the strip of paper and fold the paper over the bean and tape in place. Executing the Experiment

Find a location at an high location, such as a staircase and place a small ‘X’ directly below the dropping site.

Drop a bean without a parachute directly above the X without any extra movement from the hand.

Drop the bean with no parachute 3 times timing in seconds the time from dropping the bean to when the bean hits the ground.

Then, measure in centimeters from the X to the beans final destination.

Repeat steps 2-4 with the rest of the parachute beans, recording the time and distance of each one.

Record all the times and distances on pencil and paper.

Data

*C= Control group

Bean #

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

C10

Time (sec)

3.87

5.15

2.50

4.17

3.84

2.82

2.67

3.00

2.85