DATE2024.08.08 #Press Releases

Plants offer fruit to insects to disperse dust-like seeds

Summary

Fruit exist to invite animals to disperse the swallowed seeds. A Kobe University research team found that plants targeting insects rather than birds or mammals for this service are more common than previously thought. These plants produce dust-like seeds and fruit suitable for the minute, ground-dwelling animals.

Figure：The shrub-like plant Rhynchotechum discolor produces fruit that are difficult to see from above but suitable for ground-dwelling insects. However, seed dispersal by insects was previously thought to be limited to cases where other dispersers were not available or where fungi-eating plants already had dust-like seeds. The Kobe University botanist SUETSUGU Kenji says, “Our findings challenge the notion that insect-mediated seed dispersal is a special case and suggest that it may be more widespread and ecologically important than previously understood.” © ANSAI Shun (CC BY)

The study was published online in the international journal Plants, People, Planet on August 8, 2024.

Professor Hirokazu Tsukaya, Department of Biological Sciences participated in this research achievement.

For more information, please visit the website of Kobe University.

Journal

Journal name	Plants, People, Planet
Title of paper	Unlikely allies: camel crickets play a role in the seed dispersal of an Asian autotrophic shrub