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Let’s perform the experiment.
Take a container and fill it with soil. Take some sunflower seeds
and plant the seeds inside the soil. Place the container
somewhere warm, sunlight is good but try to avoid too much
direct sunlight, a window sill is a good spot. Keep the soil moist
by watering it every day (be careful not to use too much water).
Observe them after a week. You will see that tiny roots will start
to come out of the sunflower seeds. Take care and after a few
days you will notice that it starts to grow into a plant.

Parts of the Seed

A seed has three main parts–seed coat, Embryo
cotyledons and embryo.
1. Seed coat: The seed coat is the outside Seed
coat
layer of a seed. It protects the seed
inside. A tiny hole on seed coat allows Food
air and water to enter the seed. Supply
2. Cotyledons: It is a significant part of
the embryo within the seed of a plant.
3. Embryo: It is present in the cotyledon.
It grows into a new plant.

Inside and outside of a seed

Seed Dispersal

A plant produces a large number of seeds. If all the seeds fall on the ground under the
parent plant, there would grow a large number of seedlings at that place. Such a large
number of plants would not get sufficient amount of water, light and minerals as they
have to compete for limited supply of water and minerals. Hence, many of them
would die. To avoid such a condition, seeds are dispersed to different places by some
means like water, air and animals. The process of spreading of seeds to different
places is called dispersal of seeds. The means, by which seeds are dispersed, are
known as agents of dispersal.

Wind Dispersal: It is one of the more primitive means of dispersal. Some seeds are
easily carried away by the blowing wind. Such seeds are usually small, flat, dry and

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