Whether plant or animal, for a species to continue to exist, reproduction must take place.
By a certain age, deer, bears, elephants, mice or rabbits must mate to ensure that offspring will be born to replace those that die, or to “build up” (bolster) the existing population.
Some, like an elephant, after a 22-month gestation, have one young. The young are born rather intelligent and quickly learn to seek safety with an elephant herd.
Cottontail rabbits have a gestation period of 27 days, and after a rather short time being nursed, they are on their own. The female may breed three or more times each summer. However, their life expectancy is rather short, so having so many young each year ensures that some will live long enough to breed the next year.
Plants don’t have parental care like the mammals or birds.
But to ensure the species survives and can expand its range, they must reproduce, too. Most vascular plants like oaks, apples, corn or dandelions will produce seeds to see that reproduction does occur. However, just producing seeds and dropping them next to the parent may not be too efficient.
Imagine a 100-year-old, 70-foot-tall white oak dropping its acorns under the tree canopy. How many would reach maturity in a situation where the “mother” plant captures most of the sunlight, and its massive root system “gobbles up” most of the nutrients and water?
So, plants must see to it that their seeds (offspring) get a chance to grow in an area that is conducive to that growth, and the seeds must be scattered.
Dandelions, after pollination and seed development, produce a tiny parachute for wind to carry them. Apple trees, after maturing for five or more years, develop tasty fruit, hoping animals will distribute their seeds. With our huge variety of plants, they use various ways to see that it does occur.
I hope my photo section of this week’s column depicts some of the methods plants can find to get their “offspring” out from under their parents’ wings, so to speak.
Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Bat’s droppings that accumulate beneath their roosts is called: A. scat; B. wash; C. guano; D. annulus.
Last Week’s Trivia Answer: On Aug. 8, I observed a mourning dove carrying nesting materials into a spruce tree. Obviously, those young won’t leave the nest until early September. They are one of the few nesting this late in the year.
When the dandelion flower matures, the seeds develop a tiny “parachute” that in the slightest breeze will be carried by the wind. I seldom used any herbicides in my lawn and I apologize to my old neighbors for allowing the seeds to travel to their lawns. Next May when they mature, look for white-crowned sparrows, who relish the seeds.
Beggar’s ticks stick to clothing with tiny spurs. Of course in nature they’ll cling to a fox or coyote’s fur, and could be transported almost anywhere until the animal scratches them off. Another “sticky” seed is stick tights, small triangular seeds that cling like Velcro to your socks. BARRY REED/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
Red oak acorns cling to a branch. As they ripen, most fall to the ground under the tree, but many are gathered by squirrels. They may bury hundreds of acorns and can’t possibly remember where they buried each one. Of course, once buried, the acorn is less likely to be eaten by another squirrel and has a head start to germinate.
Milkweed pods eventually dry and burst open, exposing the seeds to the wind. Much like dandelions, each seed is scattered to a hopefully favorable location to sprout. BARRY REED/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
Samaras are the dried fruits of ash and maple trees. Red maple samaras, pictured here, usually split in half, and the twirling helicopter-like samara can drift quite a distance in a breeze. This past May, while working in my food plot, I left my pickup truck windows open. Two hours later, my seats hosted about a half-dozen samaras from the closest maple, about 50 yards away.
Pine cones remain tightly closed until the seeds mature on the scales. When the seeds are completely developed, the cone slowly opens, allowing the wind to scatter the small seeds with light, papery wings attached. It’s amazing how far these seeds can travel, spiraling away from the tree’s hundreds of cones. This is a white pine cone pictured here, with some of the mature seeds revealed.
Most pine seeds get eaten by hungry red and gray squirrels before the cone matures. But many still make it to the ground, and if lucky, find an ideal spot to grow. These white pine seedlings crowd a 1-foot-square piece of forest soil. Even then, maybe only one of these seedlings will grow to be a towering 80-foot giant.
Any wandering animal, including a hiker with woolen socks, will transport these seeds to where ever they get scratched or pulled off.
Witch hazel, a rather common small tree in our forest understory, blooms in October. After pollination, the seeds develop inside a dry casing. The next year, the pod splits open forcefully enough to eject the seed up to 30 feet in a method called ballistic seed dispersal. Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.
Once considered a great all-around wildlife planting, autumn olive is now listed as an invasive species. They were planted as game food and wildlife cover, but birds that devour the small fruits in early fall deposit the seeds everywhere via their droppings. Actually, birds not only scatter the seeds but the slight digestion actually scarifies the seed, helping it germinate quicker.
Pale Jewelweed blooms in late summer and fall in damp, often stream-side areas. Its pretty orange flowers ripen into a 1.25-inch-long pod that swells when ripe. Touch it and the pod “explodes” in your hand. Its nicknamed the “touch me not” and uses ballistic seed dispersal, as well.
Black walnut trees can produce hundreds of nuts each fall. Squirrels will eat some immediately, but more than likely, they’ll carry them off and bury them for eating in winter. I have one walnut tree on my property, and I find young trees growing 80 or 100 yards away from it.