1. Seed Dispersal Diversity of Life Grade 7

2. Survival  The ultimate measure of an organism’s success is its survival until it reproduces.  Survival depends on the organism’s ability to acquire the resources necessary to stay alive, including air, water, nutrients, energy, and space.

3. Pollination Review  The purpose of flowers is reproduction.  Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male anthers onto the tip of the female pistil.  There are a great variety of colors and shapes of flowers to attract different pollinators.

4. Pollination Review  A seed is the embryo of a new plant encased in a seed coat along with a supply of energy from the cotelydon.  The purpose of a seed is to grow and produce the next generation of its kind.

5. Pollination Review  It is not a good idea for all of the seeds to grow directly under the parent plant because resources might be diverted or depleted by the parent plant.

6. Plant Survival  Many Monera, animals, and protists can move to find the resources they need for survival; plant’s can’t.  Plants have to use other strategies for acquiring resources. One important strategy for survival is growing in a location where there is little competition for resources.  This means starting life some distance away from the parent plant.

7. Seed Dispersal  Seeds are not rooted in the ground. This is the only time in a plant’s life where it can move.  Seed-dispersal features: features that allow plants to move (away from their parent plant).

8. Examples of Seed Dispersal  Have you ever had to remove stickers or burs from your dog or cat’s fur? What are those stickers or burs?  What do your socks look life after a walk through a field in the fall? What are those things?  What happens to dandelions after they go to seed? What are those little fluffy things that blow away?  What do squirrels do with all those acorns they collect in the fall? What are the acorns?

9. Examples’ Answer  The answer to all of the questions posed on the previous slide: SEEDS