A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant. The formation of the seed completes the process of reproduction in seed plants (started with the development of flowers and pollination), with the embryo developed from the zygote and the seed coat from the integuments of the ovule. All seeds are different size, shape and colour.
Seeds have been an important development in the reproduction and spread of flowering plants, relative to more primitive plants such as mosses, ferns and liverworts, which do not have seeds and use other means to propagate themselves. This can be seen by the success of seed plants (both gymnosperms and angiosperms) in dominating biological niches on land, from forests to grasslands both in hot and cold climates.
The term "seed" also has a general meaning that antedates the above — anything that can be sown, e.g. "seed" potatoes, "seeds" of corn or sunflower "seeds". In the case of sunflower and corn "seeds", what is sown is the seed enclosed in a shell or husk, whereas the potato is a tuber.
Read more about Seed: Seed Structure, Seed Production, Seed Functions, Seed Germination, Origin and Evolution, Seed Records
Other articles related to "seed, seeds":
... This gave her the 7th seed for the final competition bracket in which she faced Wei Pi-Hsiu in the first round, beating the archer from Chinese Taipei with 108-99 ... In the second round she was surprised by 26th seed Khatuna Lorig from the United States who won the confrontation with 112-109 ... second position after the ranking round, which gave them a straight seed into the quarter finals ...
... season, Gouldian Finches feed mostly on ripe or half-ripe grass seeds of sorghum ... the dry season, they forage on the ground for fallen seed ... During the wet season, spinifex grass seed (Triodia sp.) is an important component of their diet ...
... Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding, is a form of securities offering in which an investor purchases part of a business ... The term seed suggests that this is an early investment, meant to support the business until it can generate cash of its own, or until it is ready for further ... Seed money options include friends and family funding, angel funding and -- recently -- crowd funding ...
... The oldest viable carbon-14-dated seed that has grown into a plant was a Judean date palm seed about 2,000 years old, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada in ... years in the Siberian permafrost was achieved using fruit tissue, not seed.) The largest seed is produced by the coco de mer, or "double coconut palm ... pounds) and usually contains a single seed ...
... night the main shock was the defeat of World Champion and number one seed John Part, who was beaten by Buddy Lessig in the third round ... The number two seed, Gerry Convery, also lost in the second round to Paul Lim ... Leading American and third seed Ray Carver was defeated in the fifth round by Brad Wethington and John Kuczynski was beaten in the quarters by Brian ...
Famous quotes containing the word seed:
“He who eats the fruit should at least plant the seed; ay, if possible, a better seed than that whose fruit he has enjoyed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed,—a, to me, equally mysterious origin for it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The first month of his absence
I was numb and sick
And where he’d left his promise
Life did not turn or kick.
The seed, the seed of love was sick.”
—Alun Lewis (1915–1944)