Genesis 1:11: and God Said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: And it was so."
To make seed, a plant will send miles of root hairs down into the soil. The plant gathers large amounts of water; produces its own food, by growing leaves, and grows flowers, with stamens and pistils, that produce pollen. This pollen will be either transported by the wind or attracted to insects that will carry the pollen from flower to flower. All of this happens just to produce a seed!
A seed is the embryo of a plant. Inside the seed's coat are both the female egg cell and the male sperm, plus food for the sprouting plant. In some species, the seed's coat can be thin and papery; while in others, the seed's coat is thick and hard.
The food of the seed is stored within the endosperm tissue which will feed the plant until it can manufacture its own food. It is amazing that packed inside a tiny seed is the tree's trunk, roots, buds and enough food for the plant until it is able to produce its own.
Even more amazing is that mostseeds have a built in dispersal system. Two good examples of a seed's dispersal system by wind are the winged seeds, of the maple trees, and the parachute seeds, of the milkweed plant. However, there are many other types of seed dispersal. Seeds of the dandelion plant can travel as far as six miles. Some mushrooms, such as puff balls, have spores that are dispersed by the wind; while the spores of other mushrooms are fed upon by flies attracted by bad odor. These spores, which pass through the flies unharmed, are excreted in their droppings. One fly dropping when examined contained over 20 million spores
Other seeds are smooth and contained inside a fruit. After the fruit is eaten by either a bird or animal, the seed passes through the digestive track and expelled in its waste. This waste is always found quite a distance away from the parent plant. Apples are an excellent example of this kind of dispersion.
Coconut trees grow along the shore lines of lakes, streams and oceans. If a coconut, which is the world’s largest seed, falls into the water, the coconut milk (found inside) feeds the seed until the coconut drifts ashore. Once on the ground a new coconut tree will push through one of the three eyes on the hull of the nut, and presto, a new tree is born.
There are other seeds that have sharp hooks, which grab hold of the fur of an animal that passes by the plant. Later, when the animal rubs against either a bush or tree, the hooked seeds fall to the ground. Burdocks and Spanish needles are good examples of this type of dispersion.
If a seed does not fall off in a favorable spot, the seed will eventually die. Although the normal length of time for a seed to survive is from summer until the following spring, some seeds, (usually grass seeds) can germinate after 15 years and even seeds of other species (ragweed) grew after forty years.
If all plant seeds were successful, plants would over-run the earth. For example: one red clover plant can produce 500 seeds; a crabgrass plant can produce 90,000 seeds and a pigweed plant can produce a million seeds.
Not all seeds will reproduce into plants. Many seeds are eaten by man, animals and birds. One mouse can eat up to 36 pounds of food in its lifetime, and most birds feed upon seeds.
There are some oil covered seeds that attract ants. The ants collect these seeds not to eat but rather for the oil.
I know of two plants (witch hazel tree and jewelweed plant) that shoot their seeds away from the parent plant. Also unusual is the tumbleweed, which will ripen, dry up and then be uprooted by the wind. While being blown around by the wind, the tumbleweed drops it seeds.
The overproduction of seeds by our plants might seem as a waste; however, the seeds cannot choose the places or conditions in which they will finally lodge.
Now, I'm sure you will agree that the different types of seed dispersals are ingenious.