Seeds

📖 In short

A seed is a little treasure: inside it a tiny plant is sleeping, with enough food to start its life and a coat to protect it. When it finds the right water and warmth, it wakes up and starts to grow, sending out a root, then a stem and leaves.

🤩 Did you know?

About 250 thousand kinds of plants make seeds.
Scientists found that some lotus seeds can still sprout after hundreds of years or more.
The biggest seed in the world is the sea coconut's, which can weigh more than 15 kilograms.
Some seeds are as tiny as dust, like orchid seeds.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Inside a seed

A seed has three parts: the coat that protects it, the embryo, which is the tiny plant, and the food store that feeds it until its leaves grow and make their own food.

🔍 Germination

When a seed is planted in warm, damp soil, it soaks up water and swells, then its coat splits, and the root comes out first going down, then the shoot going up towards the light.

💡 Seeds on the move

Seeds travel in amazing ways: some fly on the wind, like feathery dandelion seeds, some stick to animal fur, some are eaten and carried by birds, and some float on water.