This week we are going to think about how plants disperse (spread out) their seeds .

Plants disperse their seeds in lots of different ways. 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.

Many plants also use animals to carry their seeds. This type of seed may have handy hooks which attach to an animal’s fur. Alternatively, the plants might make tasty fruit to enclose the seeds, which attract animals to eat them.

Read the information on the slides

Use what you have learnt to complete one of the activities below. Number 1 is the easiest and number 3 is the most tricky.

Activity 1 - On worksheet 3A,  describe why each of the fruits shown has so many seeds and then choose three different ways seeds can be dispersed. Use labelled illustrations to show this.

Activity 2 - On worksheet 3B, describe each of the fruits shown and explain how the seeds from each fruit might be dispersed.

Activity 3 - On worksheet 3C, describe how each of the methods of seed dispersal work and then list as many examples of plants/fruits as you can that use each different method