meganpom
Velcro for Plants
On January 20th, 2017, I was walking along the coast at Fort Fisher when I noticed these bur like things attaching to my shoes and jeans. I started to think that it must be happening to other people and animals who get too close to this plant. So I looked up why these plants would be adapted to hook onto things so easily. One reason I found was that it contains a seed and instead of dropping it right next to where it came from, it prefers to disperse out to avoid competition and to spread as far as it can. Plants disperse their seeds in many ways such as in fruit which is then eaten by an animal and carried on from there. More examples would be by using wind or water. This plant, however, uses its tiny projections to hook on to anything that passes by which can be on animal fur or people's clothes. Picking these off of me seemed annoying at first but now I know I helped this plant start a new life cycle by carrying its seed to a new location where it can start to grow on its own.
Velcro for Plants
On January 20th, 2017, I was walking along the coast at Fort Fisher when I noticed these bur like things attaching to my shoes and jeans. I started to think that it must be happening to other people and animals who get too close to this plant. So I looked up why these plants would be adapted to hook onto things so easily. One reason I found was that it contains a seed and instead of dropping it right next to where it came from, it prefers to disperse out to avoid competition and to spread as far as it can. Plants disperse their seeds in many ways such as in fruit which is then eaten by an animal and carried on from there. More examples would be by using wind or water. This plant, however, uses its tiny projections to hook on to anything that passes by which can be on animal fur or people's clothes. Picking these off of me seemed annoying at first but now I know I helped this plant start a new life cycle by carrying its seed to a new location where it can start to grow on its own.