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Throughout the spring, summer and fall, the plant world has treated us to a colorful array of flowers. In March, the flowers of the skunk cabbage were the first to bloom, and now, we have the fall asters blooming until the hard frosts of October.
We have had an almost perfect year for wildflowers. Although the beauty of the wildflowers gives us much enjoyment, the flowers also have the job of starting the seed development that will insure the future of the plant itself.
Each seed contains a plant that is ready to start a new generation next year. These seeds come in all sizes and shapes and in an array of different types of containers. The object is to get away from the parent plant, find a suitable place to germinate and grow the next year
Seed distribution is the only individual process in the life cycle of plants. Every other process is standard, regardless of the kind of plant. Each plant has its own mechanics of seed dispersal that suit its needs.
Seeds get to their new homes in many ways. Some travel long distances, while others will travel only short distances. Some plants will use animals to disperse the seeds. After an animal eats a seed, it will later pass through its digestive system. Some seeds need to pass through an animal's digestive system to germinate.
Wind is another method of seed dispersal. Trees, such as maple, ash and basswood, have seeds with wings that act as propellers, enabling the seeds to fly to new places. The milkweed, dandelion and cattail seeds are attached to a fine fluff that catches the slightest breeze to fly away on. Still, other seeds use water to help disperse their seeds.
Probably the most famous of the floating seeds is the coconut, which can float across a great expanse of ocean and still be able to germinate, even after spending over a year in salt water.
Seeds of the jewelweed and witch hazel plants will explode and travel away from the parent plants like rockets. Then, we have the Spanish needle, burdock and sticktight plants, with seeds that have either spines or hooks that catch onto fur and feathers of passing animals. Eventually, the seeds will fall off at new locations.
I am sure that everyone has gone for a walk in a field and gotten into burdocks. The burdock plant has a seed dispersal system that can be found almost anywhere where conditions are right for its survival.
The seed of a plant contains a miniature flower and leaf of itself. The seeds are set free with food to keep them equipped to take advantage of every outside agent to keep them alive and moving. Nuts and acorns use squirrels; berries and grains use birds; hooked or sticky seeds use furry animals; rain, rivers or seas and wind are also used. Plants with seeds that are extremely oily (hellebore) are favored by ants that will cart the seeds off to a new home.
A man by the name of George de Mestral came out with a new way of fastening or hooking our clothing, shoes and other items known as Velcro. I'm sure he made a pretty penny on his invention. However, if you look at the burdock plant, you will discover that nature had its own Velcro strip, and it's been around much longer than de Mestral's famous fastener.
If examining the burdock sticker under a magnifying glass, you will find small hooks that can adhere to almost anything. If you pry this sticker open, you will find seeds inside. Try to count the number of seeds in the sticker, and then, count the number of stickers on a plant, and you will find that one burdock plant produces as many as 40,000 seeds. The burdock plant is considered a weed.
It has large leaves, which are shaped like a heart. The root of the burdock plant lives for two seasons. Most burdock plants grow to be four or five feet tall, however the stalk can grow to almost nine feet tall. The burdock can be destroyed by cutting the flowers off before the seeds are formed.
At one time, burdock seeds, leaves and roots were used in making medicine. Burdock is considered a modern plant in the scheme of things. The burdock, ragweed, milkweed, aster, goldenrod and wild carrot are found along our roadways, but they do not grow well in the thickets of hedge rows and forests. It's only with the help of humans that bramble, brier, burdock and pigweed flourish among the stumps of the oaks and maples. Humans are probably the best method of seed dispersal. Some plants have been helped intentionally, while others have duped us into helping them.
If we do not like a plant, it is called a weed. Some say that the weeds shall inherit the Earth. The weeds of the world have spread because of man's plowed fields and disturbed roadside. More than a thousand species of plants have come from Europe with man. Many were loved and respected in their native land but lost their restraint in our clearings. Daisies, black eyed Susans, mullein, sunflowers, Queen Anne's lace, ragwort, fleabane, chicory, bull thistle, mustard, along with goldenrod and aster make up the mighty composite family, the largest family of flowering plants.
The trouble is not in their beauty but sometimes in their unbridled numbers. True, most of these plants have pretty flowers but beauty is not what the farmer is thinking of when mustard sweeps into a field and takes over. Our swamps and waterways are being taken over by a plant called purple loosestrife, pretty, yes, but a problem nonetheless.
Remember a weed is just a flower that we have no use for.
Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.