I want to travel - the seeds are crazy

When you were a kid, did you also dream about traveling around the world?

When traveling, you can choose to walk, ride a bike, take a car, take a boat, fly a plane, or even take a spaceship. But how do plants, these comrades who cannot move, realize their wishes?

When they are young, that is, when they are still seeds, they also have many ways to travel and then settle down and live.

Aeronautical type: This is also the most majestic type. These are seeds that come with parachutes or wings. When the wind comes, they can flutter around. Of course, this is generally only suitable for seeds that are as light as a swallow, such as the familiar dandelion seeds and maple seeds.

Dandelion (Photo by Deng Xinhua)

Seafaring: These comrades often have a buoyant "swimming ring" outer shell (such as the coconut palm outside the coconut), and once the tide rises, they begin to drift with the current, entertaining themselves, and wait until the tide recedes before they take root. Typical: seeds of coconut, sea mango, barringtonia, etc.

The laziest type: Also known as the hitchhiker type or the persistent type, this type of seed is often covered with barbs. When an animal passes by, it attaches itself to the animal until it is discovered and falls off. If you have ever walked in the wild, you must have had this moment of being humiliated and angry, with your favorite sweater or pants covered with these hateful little balls of hair. Representatives include the seeds of Xanthium sibiricum and Bidens pilosa.

Xanthium sibiricum (Photo by Ke Xiaoxia)

Hyperactive type: Also called the bouncing type, when ripe, the peel splits open and the seeds pop out. As for where they can go, it depends on how far they can jump. For example, many children have played the game of squeezing the seeds of Impatiens.

Impatiens (Photo by Deng Xinhua)

Involuntarily: These are like people who are transferred to other places on business trips. Some delicious fruits often become delicacies for birds, and their seeds are often excreted with bird droppings. Relying on this primitive accumulation (bird droppings are also fertilizers), they often thrive. For example: seeds of holly and banyan trees.

Holly (Photo by Deng Xinhua)

The most home-loving type: Like humans, some people never leave home in their entire lives. These seeds that don’t like to travel far often fall directly on their doorsteps after they mature, which is really a good thing. For example, peanuts.

Peanuts (Photo by Deng Xinhua)

The type that relies on parents for support: Some not only do not like to go out, but also refuse to leave after growing up. They often grow out of leaves or flowers, and rely on the mother plant for support until the leaves become weak and die or the flowers fall off, and then they are finally willing to become independent, such as the "viviparous" phenomenon of mangrove plants and water lilies.

The "viviparity" of water lilies