Animal
Dispersal
Some
plants have juicy fruit that animals like to eat.
The
animal eats the fruit but only the juicy part is digested.
The
stones and pips pass through the animal's digestive system and
are excreted to form new plants. This can be far away from the
parent plant.
Blackberry,
cherry and apple seeds are dispersed in this way.
Birds
also like to eat fruit and they help to disperse seeds to other
areas through their droppings.
Mistletoe
has sticky fruits which are attractive to birds. The sticky seeds
stick to the bird's beak. They then rub their beaks clean on the
bark of trees. The sticky seeds are left on the bark to grow into
new mistletoe plants - mistletoe is a parasitic plant.
Squirrels
collect nuts like acorns and bury them for winter food, but they
often forget where they have buried them and these grow into new
trees.
Some
fruits like that of the burdock plant have seeds with hooks.
These
catch on the fur of animals and are carried away.
Remember
there are five ways that seeds are dispersed.
