Like for say an apple tree. Yes the apple falls down the tree naturally but the seeds are inside the center of the apple itself. How exactly do the seeds go to the soil and fertilise to grow more trees?
In: Biology
The apple is full of sugars. This sugar attracts animals to eat the apple. The seeds are then pooped out somewhere else and they sprout into a tree.
The seed has enough fuel in it (or around it) to grow a little tiny root downward and a stem upward. That’s all it really needs to get started
Oh also. You might ask “but what about hard ground, etc? Doesn’t the seed need to get planted, like on a farm?” The vast majority of seeds don’t sprout. An apple has 5-8 seeds, an apple tree can produce 200-300 apples per year, but wild apple trees aren’t creating 1,000-2,000 new trees every year. They make a ton of low-cost seeds, and hope that a few of them get put down somewhere where they can grow. Also, animal poop is pure fertilizer.
It can depend on a bunch of things! Seeds can spread through animals eating fruit and pooping them out. The actual buds themselves can get pollenated by bees or even the wind!
Also- the apple on ground is going to rot and disintegrate… leaving the seed to germinate… but Lexx answer is more likely. Birds, squirrels, deer, all woodland animals are the primary sources of germinating new plants from pooping them out… fertilizer free.
Have you ever noticed when looking at fields that the separation tree lines are always along the fence posts? This is because a bird sat on that fence post, pooped out whatever she ate yesterday, and this is where the new tree or plant grows.
Two things: as mentioned already, animals eat fruit and poop out the seeds. This is great because it allows seeds to get carried into new locations and the poop is fertilizer. But second, the seed can sprout inside the fruit regardless. I’ve certainly seen sprouted seeds inside of apples before. And the fruit will get eaten eventually- if not by a large animal then by bugs and fungus.
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