How Do Seeds Know When to Grow?

Imagine a seed like a sleepy baby, it needs the right signal to wake up and start growing. When the weather gets warm, or when it rains, the seed gets a message that says, 'It’s time!' The message comes from chemicals in the soil or water, which tell the seed to grow into a plant. Just like you might wake up because your alarm clock rings!

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Examples

  1. A seed buried under snow waits until spring, when the sun warms it up enough to start growing.
  2. An acorn on the forest floor stays asleep until rain soaks it and sends a signal to grow.
  3. Seeds in a packet of soil stay still until you water them and say, 'Time to wake up!'

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Categories: Biology · seeds· plant biology· germination · Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.