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Plants Evolve Many Ways To Spread Seeds
- Plants use diverse dispersal strategies to move offspring away from parents and reduce competition.
- Mechanisms include animal ingestion, wind (dandelions), and spinning samaras (sycamores).
Oak Trees Use Squirrel Forgetfulness
- Oak trees produce sporadic huge mast years to overwhelm squirrel caches and leave some acorns unclaimed.
- Steve Mould describes squirrels forgetting buried acorns that then grow into new trees.
Fire-Triggered Seed Release Wins Post-Fire
- Some plants time seed release to ecological events like fire (serotiny) to exploit cleared, nutrient-rich environments.
- Pine cones sealed with resin open under heat to release seeds after fires.