Dispersal Notes

Terminology:

androchorous: seed dispersed by the agency of humans; synonymous terms: anthropochorous; brotochorous

anemochorous: seed dispersed by the agency of wind

barachorous: seed dispersed by its own weight; synonymous term:
clitochorous

bolochorous: seed dispersed by the agency of propulsive mechanisms

endozoochorous: seed dispersed by the agency of animals; synonymous terms: synzoochorous; zoochorous

entomochoric: seed dispersed by the agency of insects

hydrochoric: seed dispersed by the agency of water

myrmecochorous: seed dispersed by the agency of ants

Seed Dispersal Patterns & Mechanisms

General relationships between seed density and distance from source: Invasion of a habitat by colonizing plant (weed) has similarities to the spread of pathogenic infection in a crop

• Crop infection: logarithm of infection density to the logarithm of distance from source
• If the slope is that of the inverse square law, or steeper, a population will spread into a colonizable territory as an advancing front: "horizon of infection"; the steeper the slope the more sharply defined is the infection front
• Dispersal curves with slopes less than than that of the inverse square law will lead to a spread-out pattern of isolated colonists, which may subsequently act as new foci for new infections

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©jdekker-1999