What is the biological significance of fruits and seeds. The value of seeds and fruits in nature and human life

Each organ of a living organism performs its vital function. The anatomy of flowering plants will help us understand their specialization. The fruit is not the last in this series.

generative organs

All parts of plants can be grouped into two groups. Vegetative plants include root, stem and leaf. Their role is important. This is the flow of water, mineral nutrition, the synthesis of organic substances, vegetative reproduction. (flower, fruit, seed) are called upon to play the role of reproduction of organisms.

What fruit is in the plant? To answer this question, we must first understand its origin. The fruit is formed only from certain parts of the flower: from the fertilized female reproductive cell - the embryo, from the central - the reserve nutrient endosperm. All together it is a seed. But for germination and development, the future tiny organism needs reliable protection and additional nutrition. This important role is assigned to the pericarp, which consists of several membranes: outer, middle and inner. Each of them has its own characteristics, due to the functions performed.

What is the function of the fetus

By structure, the fruits are dry and juicy, single-seeded and multi-seeded. But, regardless of the features, each in its own way "takes care" of its seeds, performing the most important functions.

Seed spread

What function the fruit performs can be considered not only from the perspective of protection, but also the distribution of seeds. And this is very important for the settlement of plants everywhere, increasing their species diversity.

The methods of seed dispersal are varied and depend on the structure of the pericarp. For example, the well-known one itself scatters seeds, breaking through the leathery peel. Similarly, when touched, the fruits of balsam crack.

A reliable assistant in the distribution of plants is the wind. Maple and ash lionfish are easily picked up by air currents and carried over fairly long distances. In general, most dehiscent dry fruits spread their seeds in this way.

In many steppes, it dries up at the base, breaks off and is also carried by the wind. This is how a spherical tumbleweed bush travels across the steppe.

The prickly and tenacious fruits of burdock often have to be torn off clothing or pet hair. This is their adaptation to resettlement. After all, you can find a thorn on yourself at a considerable distance from the place of attachment.

Spread their seeds downstream.

Well, juicy fruits with a bright pericarp are traditionally a favorite delicacy not only for humans, but for many birds and animals. Together with undigested food residues, the seeds fall into the soil far from the mother tree.

seed protection

The fruits are like secure home help seeds survive adverse conditions environment. And with the onset of heat and the presence of a sufficient amount of solar energy - to germinate, giving life to a new plant organism.

Of course, not all parts of plants are tasty and edible. For example, what is the function of the nut fruit? Its lignified shell is not eaten, it does not have valuable nutritional qualities. But with such protection, the oil-rich walnut seed will easily lie in the ground through autumn and winter. And in the spring it will give rise to the future hazel.

Tasty and healthy

But for most of us, fruits are associated with delicious and useful product with wide application. A person preserves fruits and berries, pickles vegetables, grinds and adds spicy seeds to various dishes as a seasoning. Flour is obtained from the fruits of cereal plants, without which it is impossible to bake bread. From dry fruits of corn, sunflower, soybeans, flax, a large amount of valuable oils is squeezed out.

Fruits and seeds are also used in various industries. Natural fabrics are made from cotton, allowing you to feel comfortable even in unbearable heat.

And during the period of colds, one simply cannot do without strawberries, raspberries and viburnum. They are rich in vitamin C, which supports human immunity.

In nature, there are a lot of poisonous fruits. Henbane causes vomiting and dizziness, elderberry - diarrhea, yew cones - a violation of the activity of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. All parts of the raven eye plant are poisonous. Berries are traditionally the most dangerous because they have an attractive appearance. Especially often children enjoy it. But in no case should this be done, because it can even lead to cardiac arrest.

We examined what function the fetus performs as a generative organ of plants. It plays an important role for the organism itself, for its settlement and nutrition of animals. But most of all it is used by a person, eating whole and processed parts of the fruit.

The fruit is a specific organ of flowering (angiosperms) plants, which is a closed receptacle for seeds. It can develop both without double fertilization and without seeds (during apomixis).

The variety of fruits is huge, and they have long attracted the attention of researchers. As early as the 16th century, Cesalpini created an artificial classification system for flowering plants based on fruit types. In the 18th century, the German scientist Gertner defined the science of fruits, the features of their structure, ontogenesis, ecology and distribution as carpology(lat.carpos- fetus).

The close attention of a person to the study of fruits is not accidental. Fruits are the basis of our life and have a great importance in human life:

1) food (starchy, containing protein, fruits, drinks, vegetables, spicy);

2) fodder (beans, vetch, oats, etc.);

3) oilseeds (tung, hemp, sunflower, etc.);

4) medicinal (hawthorn, raspberry, wild rose, etc.);

5) fibrous (cotton);

6) ornamental (bottle gourd, etc.).

It can be used as the whole fruit as a whole, and its parts (pericarp, seeds.

The fruit is a gynoecium of one flower modified after double fertilization or apomixis, sometimes with other parts of the flower adhering to it.

Thus, the fetus is a flower modified after double fertilization or apomixis.

Fetal Functions:

1) protection for seeds;

2) dissemination ( lat.disseminare- distribute) is the process of seed dispersal.

The value of fruits in nature:

1) ensure the resettlement, reproduction and survival of plants (see fruit functions);

2) food for animals.

Fruit traits in plants are hereditarily stable. The plant can often be identified by the fruit. In different groups of angiosperms, the evolution of fruits proceeded in their own way, but precisely in the direction of strengthening their functions, => some fruits became multi-seeded, others - few or one-seeded. But in any case, adaptations appeared that contributed to their better distribution.

There are cases when in the same species, and even on the same plant, fruits of different structure or with different physiological characteristics (for example, germination terms) can form. This phenomenon is called heterocarp(diversity). It is found, for example, in calendula, in the families of Compositae, labiales, borage, cruciferous, etc. (two dozen families are known). Heterocarp has an adaptive value. Thanks to it, the distribution of fruits improves (fruits of different shapes spread differently), plants have reserve pathways for dissemination and the survival of plants improves (since different fruits germinate at different times) => the adaptability of plants to environmental conditions improves.

Well-known carpologists worked in the Ulyanovsk Pedagogical University: Levina R.E. and Voitenko V.F., who studied heterocarpy.

The structure of the fetus.

The fruit is made up of pericarp (pericarp ) and seeds. The pericarp usually has 3 layers: outer ( exocarp), average ( mesocarp) and internal ( endocarp). These layers may differ in consistency and structure or be of the same type. For example, in cherries (the fruit is a drupe): the exocarp is membranous, the mesocarp is juicy, fleshy, and the endocarp is hard, stony forms a bone containing the seed. The pericarp typically develops from the walls of the ovary, but sometimes other parts of the flower (the base of the stamens, petals, receptacle, etc.) can also take part in its formation.

What is the importance of fruits and seeds for a person, you will learn from this article.

What is the meaning of fruits?

When a flower is pollinated by an insect or wind, it is fertilized and as a result, a fruit is formed from the ovary of the pistil. Nutrients begin to flow to the ovary, it begins to grow and change, transform into a fruit. In its ovule, the formation of seeds with an embryo occurs.

The fruit, which was formed from a flower, consists of seeds inside, and outside of the pericarp. Seeds and fruits contain organic nutrients. Therefore, a person can either use them for food or feed them to animals.

Cultivated plants, depending on the type of accumulated nutrients, are divided into:

• grains (high in carbohydrates)
• legumes (high in protein)
• oilseeds (contain food oil)

Fruits play a very important role in a person's life: they contain a large amount of vitamins, so he often consumes them in food. Vitamins increase the body's resistance to diseases (lemon, rosehip, currant).

Seeds and fruits of plants are used in medicine. For example, raspberry shoots and juicy fruits effectively treat colds, blueberries improve digestion and metabolism, and wild strawberries dissolve and remove kidney and liver stones.

The fruits and seeds of plants are widely used in cosmetics: viburnum juice is an excellent remedy for age spots and skin rashes.

Often they are used as a spice, which gives the food a pleasant aroma and taste. For example, dill seeds are the basis for marinade, vanilla is used in baking and confectionery, black pepper acts as a condiment.

Seeds and fruits are used by man to obtain raw materials in various industries. For example: cotton bolls contain the raw materials needed for natural fabrics; in the seeds of the sowing camelina is a quick-drying oil, from which they make for painting oil paints.

What does it matter bright coloring fruits? As a rule, such fruits mean that they are already fully ripe and ready to eat. By this they lure people, animals and insects to themselves. However, the bright color does not always mean that it can be eaten. Often, seeds and fruits accumulate toxic substances in themselves: wolf's bast, lily of the valley, dope, belladonna, henbane. When bees collect nectar from these plants, the honey will also be poisonous. A person, poisoned by such a plant or honey from it, experiences problems with the nervous, respiratory, digestive and circulatory systems.

The role of seeds in nature and human life

Spread by animals

Spread by water

wind spread

Self spreading seeds

The seeds of many plants fall to the ground next to the mother plant after the fruit has opened. Sometimes, when the fruits are opened, the seeds are ejected with force, scattering over a certain distance. Self-scattering of seeds is typical for such plants as small-flowered touchy, common sorrel.

The seeds of many plants are dispersed by the wind (anemochory). These are, for example, seeds of Scots pine, equipped with a wing, seeds of plants of the genera Poplar and Willow, covered with hairs (ʼʼpoplar fluffʼʼ), small dusty orchid seeds.

The floating seeds of the water lily, the plantain chastukha and a number of other aquatic and semi-aquatic plants are distributed by water.

Distribution by animals is zoochory. Plant seeds can be dispersed by animals on the body (usually with fruits), by passage through the intestinal tract, and by dispersal with loss of seeds.

On the body, seeds and one-seeded fruits are carried, usually by birds and mammals. Thus, mammals can spread on their wool the fruitlets of gravilate, string, agrimony and many other plants with hooks, hairs and trailers. Also sticky seeds of mistletoe, water lilies, etc. can spread on the body of birds and mammals.

Through the intestines of birds and mammals, after eating the fruits, they pass, without losing their germination, the seeds of such plants as warty euonymus, hawthorn, raspberry and many others.

Squirrels, chipmunks, jays and nutcrackers make stocks in pantries, lose part of the seeds or do not find part of the pantries, contributing to the spread of seeds of Siberian pine and oak.

A special way of seed dispersal by animals is myrmecochory. Myrmecochory - distribution seeds ants. The seeds of some plants have nutritional appendages attractive to ants - elaiosomes. myrmecochore plants middle lane Russia - fragrant violet, European hoof, hairy hog and many others; some of them are distributed exclusively by ants.

Many organisms (from fungi and bacteria to birds and mammals) feed heavily, and sometimes exclusively, on seeds. Seeds form the basis of the diet of such animals. as some insects and their larvae (for example, reaper ants), granivorous birds, rodents (chipmunks, squirrels, hamsters, etc.).

Seeds have also been the basis of the human diet since the emergence of agriculture in most regions of the world, primarily the seeds of cultivated cereals (wheat, rice, corn, etc.). The main nutrient with which mankind receives largest number calories - starch found in cereal seeds. Seeds are also an important source of proteins for mankind, primarily legumes - soybeans, beans, etc.
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Seeds are also the main source vegetable oils, which are extracted from sunflower seeds, rapeseed, corn, flax and many other oilseeds.

3. Fruit (lat. fructus) - the reproductive organ of angiosperms, formed from a single flower and serving to form, protect and distribute the seeds contained in it. Many fruits are valuable food products, raw materials for the production of medicinal, coloring substances, etc.

The science that studies fruits is called carpology. The section of carpology that studies the patterns of distribution of fruits and seeds is called carpoecology (sometimes carpoecology is understood in a broad sense - as a synonym for diasporology, a science that studies the patterns of distribution of diasporas).

The role of seeds in nature and human life - the concept and types. Classification and features of the category "The role of seeds in nature and human life" 2017, 2018.

The fruits and seeds of plants contain nutrients organic matter Therefore, people use them for food and for animal feed. Depending on which nutrients accumulate more in fruits or seeds, cultivated plants are divided into cereals, which have a lot of carbohydrates, legumes high in protein and oilseeds, which give food oil. Vitamins are essential for human life. For example, vitamin C, which increases the resistance of the human body to diseases, in in large numbers found in rose hips, lemons, currants, etc. The fruits and seeds of many plants are used in medicine. For example, juicy fruits and raspberry shoots are used to treat colds. Delicious fresh blueberries, which bear fruit in July-September, improve metabolism and human digestion, and wild strawberries tend to dissolve and remove liver and kidney stones. The fruits and seeds of various plants are used in cosmetics. For example, the juice of viburnum fruits is a good remedy against rashes and age spots on the skin. The fruits and seeds are often used as a spice to provide food with a pleasant taste and aroma. For example, black pepper drupes are used as a seasoning for dishes, dill seeds are used to make marinades, vanilla fruits are used in confectionery. Fruits and seeds are used by man and in various industries to obtain raw materials. So, cotton bolls provide raw materials for natural fabrics. Seeds of camelina sativa contains a quick-drying oil from which oil paints are made for painting. However, fruits and seeds often accumulate toxic substances. Many of them are found in the berries of lily of the valley, wolf's bast, belladonna, henbane seeds, and dope. If bees collect nectar from these plants, then honey becomes poisonous. Poisoning by these plants is quite difficult, with disruption various systems(digestive, nervous, circulatory, respiratory), and in severe cases can lead to death. Therefore, in no case should you eat the fruits and seeds of unfamiliar plants, even if they are very attractive in appearance.

The most important groups cultivated plants, the fruits and seeds of which a person uses, are cereals, legumes, vegetables, melons, fruits, berries, oilseeds and others. Of the grain crops, wheat and rice are of the greatest importance, which provide the bulk food products for people from all continents. Leguminous plants provide a person with vegetable proteins, the most important suppliers of which are beans, peas, soybeans, etc. A significant place among vegetable crops belongs to tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and from melons - watermelons and melons. Fruit and berry crops, which are a reliable source of vitamins, are essential for humans. The leading crops in Ukraine among fruit trees are apple, pear, cherry, cherry, plum, apricot, and among berries - strawberries, grapes, raspberries, etc. Oil in the world is extracted from the fruits of olives, corn, soybeans, but the leading oil crop in Ukraine sunflower. Only a small part of the huge variety of southern fruits, such as citrus fruits (tangerines, oranges), bananas and pineapples, are popular all over the world. In the tropics, tonic plants are grown - coffee and chocolate trees, from the seeds of which coffee and cocoa are made.

Thus, the significance of seeds and fruits for humans and in nature is determined, to a large extent, by the content of certain inorganic and organic substances.

A green plant, or rather chlorophyll, acts as an intermediary between the Sun and the Earth.

K. A. Timiryazsv