What are seeds? Detailed answer

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What are seeds? Detailed answer

Big encyclopedia for children and adults

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What are seeds?

One way plants spread is by seed dispersal. Just as birds incubate eggs to produce their own kind, so a plant grows seeds to create a similar plant.

A flower or inflorescence of plants must be pollinated, otherwise the seeds will not germinate. After full maturation, the seeds must go through a dormant period. Its duration depends on the types of seeds. Some seeds will not germinate until they survive the winter.

Seeds need oxygen and heat to grow. Light also promotes seed growth. If seeds do not germinate within a certain time, they die. If a person stores seeds for future sowing, he must keep them in a dry place at a certain temperature.

Seeds are distinguished by size, shape and color. The seeds of different plants have different structures. Inside some of the seeds is a tiny plant. It is surrounded by a nutrient medium that this plant will use before the appearance of its roots and leaves, which will allow it to feed on its own.

If the seeds are viable, have passed the dormant period and have received enough moisture, oxygen and heat, they germinate. This process is called "germination". When the right amount of moisture is received, seed growth begins. They swell, chemical changes begin, life awakens in the cells of the seeds, and a small plant emerges from the seed. The bulk of the seed turns into a plant. The seed coat falls off, the plant grows, reaches maturity and produces new seeds.

Seeds are large and small in size. Begonia seeds are so small that they resemble dust. Coconut palm seeds weigh up to 18 kg. Some plants have no more than 20 seeds, maple has thousands.

Seeds are dispersed in various ways. Some seeds, such as burdock, can be carried by animals clinging to the skin, others are carried with clay by hooves. Fruit tree seeds can also be carried by humans and animals. Some of the seeds have wings and are carried by the wind. Others are taken up by the water. There are seeds that are fired by the parent plant!

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

Why do glaciers still exist today?

A huge mass of ice, from the formation of which the ice age began in North America, was called the "continental glacier": in the very center its thickness reached 4,5 km. It is possible that this glacier formed and melted four times during the entire ice age.

The glacier that covered other parts of the world has not melted in some places! For example, the huge island of Greenland is still covered by continental ice, except for a narrow coastal strip. In its middle part, the glacier sometimes reaches a thickness of more than three kilometers. Antarctica is also covered by a vast continental glacier up to 4 kilometers thick in some places!

So the reason why there are glaciers in some parts of the world is that they have not melted since the Ice Age. But the bulk of the glaciers that are found now, formed recently. They are mainly located in mountain valleys.

They originate in wide, gently sloping, amphitheater-like valleys. Snow falls here from the slopes as a result of landslides and avalanches. Such snow does not melt in the summer, becoming deeper every year. Gradually, pressure from above, some thawing, and repeated freezing remove air from the bottom of this snow mass, turning it into solid ice. The impact of the weight of the entire mass of ice and snow compresses the entire mass and causes it to move down the valley. Such a moving tongue of ice is a mountain glacier.

More than 1200 such glaciers are known in Europe in the Alps! They also exist in the Pyrenees, in the Carpathians, in the Caucasus, as well as in the mountains of southern Asia. There are tens of thousands of these glaciers in southern Alaska, some 50 to 100 km long!

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Smoking mother harms unborn child 02.09.2013

Scientists have found out how nicotine consumed by a pregnant woman affects her offspring. It turns out that nicotine not only promotes addiction and craving for smoking in a child, but also leads to a tendency to lead an unhealthy lifestyle.

It is well known that smoking during pregnancy alters the development of the fetal brain and increases the risk of preterm birth, low birth weight and miscarriage. In addition, prenatal nicotine exposure is known to increase the likelihood of tobacco use and nicotine addiction later in life, but so far the mechanisms of nicotine's effects on the unborn have remained unclear.

To uncover these mechanisms, Rockefeller University neuroscientists injected pregnant rats with low doses of nicotine, equivalent to one cigarette a day for a pregnant woman. Scientists have studied the brains and behavior of rat offspring and now understand why people exposed to nicotine in the womb are more likely to become smokers. In addition, other very serious negative side effects were found.

It turns out that nicotine increases the number of specific types of neurons in the amygdala and hypothalamus. Cells in these areas of the brain produce orexin, enkephalins and melanin-enriching hormones, in other words, neuropeptides that are responsible for stimulating appetite and increasing food intake. When exposed to nicotine in the womb, more cells are formed in the brain that produce these hormones. As a result, the younger generation is not only more likely to use nicotine, but also prefer to eat more fatty foods and drink more alcohol.

Thus, exposure to nicotine in the womb stimulates an unhealthy appetite in the offspring, which end up prone to overconsumption of nicotine, drugs, alcohol, and fatty foods. In fact, one cigarette smoked per day, or a similar dose of nicotine obtained from a patch or an electronic cigarette, leads to the fact that the mother "programs" her child's body for unfavorable development.

It is very difficult to fight this innate feature; this requires the strong will of the "affected" teenager and the appropriate environment, where only a healthy lifestyle is the norm. Unfortunately, during adolescence, these two factors are usually in great deficit.

Previously, the same scientists found that excessive consumption of fatty foods during pregnancy also creates a harmful tendency to overeat in future offspring. In general, it should be stated that pregnancy is a greater responsibility than some people believe.

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