Sow It Goes Trivia Quiz

Answer: It keeps the seed in the air longer

A maple tree produces winged fruits, each with a seed inside. As a fruit falls, it spins like a little helicopter. This slows its journey to the ground and gives the wind more time to carry it away. The winged fruit is called a samara.

Answer: Tiny hooks on its surface

A burr is a prickly covering that holds the burdock plant's seeds. Its small hooks catch in fur or clothing, so the seeds can travel with a passing animal or person. When the burr comes loose, the seeds may be left somewhere new. These hooks also inspired the fastening sold as Velcro.

Answer: The pods spring open and fling the seeds out

Orange jewelweed is also known as spotted touch-me-not. Its ripe seed pods can burst open at a light touch, throwing their seeds away from the plant. The pod stores energy as it ripens, a little like a spring held ready to release. When it splits, that energy sends the seeds flying.

Answer: The first root

The first root is called the radicle. It grows out through the seed coat, the protective outer covering, and begins taking up water while helping to anchor the young plant. The shoot then grows up towards the surface. The start of growth from a seed is called germination.

Answer: From food stored inside the seed

A bean seed contains a tiny young plant and a stored supply of food. Much of that food is held in two thick seed leaves, called cotyledons. The young plant uses this supply as it begins to grow. Later, its green leaves use light to make food through a process called photosynthesis. Water and minerals help the plant grow, but they do not replace this early store of food.

Answer: Gravity

Roots can respond to gravity, the pull that gives things weight on Earth. Special cells near a root's tip help it sense this pull and guide its growth downwards. The root is growing in that direction, rather than simply falling like a dropped object. Shoots usually grow in the opposite direction.

Answer: Too little oxygen can reach the seeds

Seeds need water to start growing, but they also need oxygen. They use oxygen to release energy from their stored food. In waterlogged soil, water fills spaces that would otherwise contain air, making oxygen harder to obtain. That is why damp soil and soil soaked with water are not the same thing for a sprouting seed.

Answer: Tendrils

Tendrils are slender, curling parts of the plant that can grip a support. In peas, parts of the leaves develop into tendrils instead of flat leaflets. They wrap around twigs or garden netting and help hold up the stems as they grow. Unlike a leaf stalk or flower stalk, a pea tendril is adapted to curl around something and grip it.

Answer: A runner

A runner is a stem that spreads out from the parent plant. A little strawberry plant can form along it and put down its own roots. Once rooted, the new plant can survive after the connecting stem is cut. This is a way of making another plant without starting from a seed.

Answer: Buds

The eyes are the little dents on a potato's surface, and they contain buds: small growing points that can develop into shoots. A shoot is a new stem with leaves. A potato is a swollen underground stem called a tuber, which stores food for the new plant's early growth. A seed potato planted by a gardener is therefore a tuber, not a true seed.