Fruit and Seed Dispersal

Fruit and Seed Dispersal The taste of a fruit is always determined by the content of some ingredients including cellulose, proteins, starch, vitamins, some acids, fructose, and sugar that are mixed inside the fruit in different proportions depending on the type of fruit. Most of the raw fruits tend to be sour when growing and when they become ripe, their taste changes to sweet. This change is brought about due to the high level of acid that is normally found in raw fruits.

The level of acid can only decrease once the fruit ripens with which the level of sugar now increases hence the sweetness of the fruit ("Why Are Some Fruits Sweet?" n.d.). However, not all fruits are sweet such as a mango that is sour when it is raw and sweetens when it ripens. The reason why some fruits taste sour is because they contain a lot of acids in them such as a lemon.

When this fruit is raw it has a sour taste that remains even when it ripens because of the increase in the level of acid. Fruits like bananas have no specific taste, especially when raw because when it is young or growing, it basically contains starch, which is tasteless. Nonetheless, when it ripens, the fruit contains fructose that adds flavor into it and makes it sweet. Ripening of fruit and seed dispersal: There are different ways in which the ripening of fruit can affect the process of seed dispersal.

One of them is that the ripe fruits will attract birds by either their color, shape or even the kind of smell they produce while they are ripe which will lead the birds to eating them up. During this process, the birds will eat the fruits and the seeds but since they cannot digest seeds, they scatter them through their compost, which will later change to manure, hindering further growth of the seeds.

Secondly, seed dispersal is affected by wind dispersal, which is a popular method, especially for plants with winged fruits. In this case, the seeds of such plants float on the air into a new home in the neighborhood. On the contrary, other plants have flowers that change into indigestible lightweight pods that can be dispersed by wind (Mangaly, n.d.). Human Interference in this Process: Generally, human beings tend to interfere with the seed dispersal process in grains and fruit.

The major way with which human interference is realized is through using fruits and grains as a source of food. While humans grow the fruits and grains, they eat necessary parts, and get rid of other parts that are often the seeds and skin. Fruits produce many seeds when they grow hence human beings eat the part that are needed by the plants during germination and throw-out the seeds.

At this time, the seeds lack enough acids that would change to starch to be used in the dominance stage, making them to become weaker and get dispersed when the wind blows. It is through this consumption and human activity that makes the fruit not to ripe and get dispersed. Moreover, this consumption results to lack of enough nutrients for the fruits and the grains to germinate.

Human activities like consumption ensure that the process of seed dispersal does not prevail because they usually interfere with the hormonal effect of the process of fruit ripening even though some seeds are bound.