Greater Sydney Parklands

Fruit and Seed Dispersal

Fruit provides a valuable source of food for humans and animals, supplying energy and nutrients needed for survival. It also helps plants reproduce by protecting the seeds and enabling them to be spread to new areas where they can grow. 

Close-up of Davidsons Plum fruit

Flowers into Fruits
 

When a flower has been pollinated, it can turn into a fruit. Fruits are very important because they keep seeds safe and help them to travel to new places. Without fruits, many plants would not be able to grow in new areas.

The Purpose of Fruit

Fruit does more than just hold seeds.  

Fruit:

  • Protects seeds as they grow
  • Stores food that can feed the young plant when it begins to sprout
  • Provides food for people and animals
  • Attracts animals with colour, smell, and taste so seeds can be spread to new places by the animals 

 

Jam made from Davidson's Plum fruit with toast on a plate

[Image: Davidson's Plum jam on toast]

 

How plants spread their seeds

Seeds are moved to new places in different ways:

Wind

  • Light seeds like dandelions float in the breeze
  • Native casuarina trees have tiny, winged seeds that can blow away in the breeze

Water

  • Seeds from water plants, like water lilies, can float and travel along rivers and creeks

Sticking  

  • Some seeds have hooks or barbs that stick to animal fur or even people’s clothes

Fire or heat

  • Banksia cones stay tightly shut until the heat of a bushfire opens them, releasing winged seeds that flutter to the ground
  • Wattle seed pods dry out and then split open, flinging out hard seeds after fire or hot weather 

By animals eating fruit 

  • Animals eat fruits and spread the seeds when they release them in their poo

    For example:

  • Figs are eaten by flying foxes, possums, and birds
  • Davidson’s plum seeds only sprout after being eaten by big cassowary birds
  • Blue flax lily has bright purple fruits that are eaten by birds who carry the seeds far away before dropping them in new places

Activities

Activity: Seed Spreaders Cartoon Drawing

Show how seeds travel using simple diagrams. 

  1. Choose two native plants:
    - one whose seeds travel by wind (e.g. she-oak, banksia)
    - one whose seeds travel by animals (e.g. fig eaten by a flying fox, or a burr on fur)
     
  2. Create a 2 box cartoon, and draw:
    - First box: the plant with its fruit
    - Second box: the seed moving by being blown, eaten, or stuck to fur (e.g. carried in a flying fox’s tummy, then dropped in poo)
     
  3. Add labels to the drawings: fruit, seed, how it is moved (e.g. wings, floating, eaten)
     
  4. Share drawings with a friend: explain how the seeds in your cartoon move to a new place. 

 

Activity: Seed Dispersal Role Play

1 teacher guided activity (around 20 minutes)  

  1. In groups of four, each student is assigned a role to play:  
    one ‘seed’ and three ‘seed dispersers’ – wind, water, and flying fox
     
  2. The ‘seed’ chooses its first disperser and travels with it to a new location: 
    - ‘wind’ blows the seed 
    - ‘water’ carries the seed 
    - ‘flying fox’ eats the fig, flies, then drops the seed elsewhere

    Repeat for all three of the ‘seed dispersers’.
     
  3. After the role-play, discuss:  
    Which seed disperser would make the seed travel the furthest? 


 

References

Images 1 & 2: Centennial Parklands