Anemochory

Anemochory [ Botany ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names


	Anemochory is the process of fruit and seeds dispersal by means of the wind.

Some plants produce seeds that can use the wind to carry them away from the parent in a wide area over long distances. Anemochory require very light seeds that are easily blown away by the wind. Larger wind-dispersed seeds are generally heavier and therefore require features such as parachutes or wings to help keep them flying in the air. The largest and heaviest wind-dispersed seeds, such as maple (Acer sp.) cannot flutter on hair-like parachutes to keep them airborne. They would have to be enormous to be effective. Instead they have developed a wing which causes them to spin through the air like helicopters. This again delays their fall. The biggest seeds of all cannot possibly be dispersed by the wind.

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Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994