- White sprinkles in the middle of June
- seeds with paraglider
- Ripe seeds ready for take-off
- Many seeds from many capsules
- What poplar wool can do
Do you know that feeling of falling into a veritable flurry of snowflakes in the middle of early summer? Of course we are not talking about real snowflakes here - but about fluffy white poplar seeds!
Poplar seeds can fly very far
White sprinkles in the middle of June
After a nature walk in June you can definitely look like after a walk through the winter forest: all white flocked. Of course, what is falling is not snowflakes, but most likely poplar seeds. However, the little fellows are quite similar to the fallen goods that children long for in winter: they are equipped with a white, downy tuft that makes them look like soft flakes.
seeds with paraglider
The reason for this is, as with all other anemochorous (wind-flying) plants, that the poplar has chosen the wind as a helper for its generative reproduction. So she adapted her seeds to this external factor and equipped them with a kind of glider - in the form of a fine tuft of white hair that allows the seed to fly a few meters away from the mother tree and try its luck at germinating.
The tuft also makes the seed quite buoyant, so with a bit of luck it can be transported much farther down rivers or streams.
Ripe seeds ready for take-off
The poplar seeds ripen in the capsules of the fertilized female catkins. Incidentally, the wind is also a mediator for pollination by male catkins. When the poplar seeds are ripe, the catkin releases them on their journey towards the germination ground. To do this, it opens the flaps of the capsule fruits and leaves the rest to the wind. He releases them and creates the annual snowflakes.
Many seeds from many capsules
There are a great many of the capsule fruits and seeds contained in them on a female kitten. The individual seeds are not particularly well equipped for this and have a rather low chance of germinating. In their generative propagation, poplars therefore rely on quantity instead of quality like other plants.
Due to the large number of seeds dancing through the air towards the ground, the bottom line is that the reproductive rate evens out.
What poplar wool can do
The hair of the poplar seed consists of fine cellulose fibers. In addition to the flight aid, these also have the purpose of absorbing moisture and causing the seed to swell for better germination. The fluffy poplar wool is a welcome padding material for birds in their nests. In the past, people used poplar wool to make fine paper.