How Seeds Travel
Plants cannot move from place to place,but seeds can.They can travel great distances. They may be carried by the wind or upon the water.They may also be carried by animals or people.Seeds that are carried by the wind often have special shapes.Maple seeds have wings that spin and keep them in the air for longer,allowing them to land in all kinds of places.Depending on the strength of the wind,they can sometimes travel for hundreds of kilometres.
Coconuts are carried along by ocean currents.When a coconut falls from a tree onto the beach,the sea picks it up at high tide and carries it away to grow somewhere else.Its hard shell allows it to float on the water for a long time.Another way for seeds to travel is through the digestive systems of animals.Many plants produce fleshy fruits that animals like to eat.The animal receives the nutrients of the fruit,but it does not digest the seed, which is passed out some time later.Of course,animals move,so the seed can easily end up a long way away from the parent plant,especially if the fruit is eaten by a bird.
In fact,seeds have a better chance at life when they are further away from their parent plant.Growing too close to the parent plant means seeds might not get enough sun,water and nutrients from the soil.Also,a species is more likely to survive if its members are more widely spread.That's why nature has come up with all sorts of different ways for seeds to travel.
How and why seeds travel are just some examples of the wonderful ways in which nature works.Perhaps we can learn something from the natural world by branching out and exploring the various wonders of nature.
Translation to be continued~