Winter plants

Posted by Violet Snow Jan 16, 2007

We can explore seeds and their means of dispersal, the various evergreen trees and shrubs, dried-out plant skeletons, and the buds that are already on the trees, waiting to erupt in spring. We begin here with an article on seed dispersal and will cover the other topics in forthcoming weeks. I find that I pine less for spring flowers when I go outside and enjoy the more subtle beauties of winter botany.

Seeds are always a source of awe for me, containing as they do the power to create an entire new plant, given the right conditions. Each plant species has its own style of seed—its own shape and size, and a particular transportation strategy. Check out the hitchhikers, leapers, droppers, floaters, and parachutists, each with special adaptations for getting around, since it’s to the species' advantage for babies to sprout at a distance from the parent plant, where they may find new opportunities to spread.

Many seeds are also beautiful to look at, as are the capsules that contain them--or once contained them and may still be on the plant. (We’ll get to those in our article on plant skeletons.) Virtually all flowering plants make seeds, including trees. Just step outside and take a look—you’re bound to find seeds on a nearby plant, and then you can try a little detective work to figure out how the seeds move to new locations.