Why did desert plant produce seeds but hard to germinate.?

Question

some desert plants produce seeds but they find it hard to germinate.

Answer 1

Natural selection has created the mechanisms involving survival of the species in a harsh environment.  Desert plants have a number of mechanisms for survival.  The easiest is for production of large numbers of seeds when the conditions are correct (ie. enough rain) for the annual plants to grow rapidly, flower, set seed and scatter the seeds through animal distribution or wind.  Other produce thick walled seeds that need to be scarified by abrasion with sand carried in running water.  If there is enough water to abraid the seed coat then there is enough for the seedling to survive.  Others contain chemical inhibitors that have to be leached out of the seed coat before the seed will germinate.  Again, there has to be enough water to soak the chemical out of the seed which is enough for the seed to germinate and grow a root system.  Often cacti need a "nurse plant" to grow near protecting the seedlings from the direct sun and animals that could step on the seedlings.

Hope this is explained well enough.

Answer 2

There may be another way to propagate the plant. Strawberry seeds are hard to germinate, but the plant itself puts out runners at the close of the production season. Some plants produce bulb clusters, or sometimes roots can be divided. For some plants, cuttings can be rooted in water, preferably water unfiltered/untreated by city water systems.

Answer 3

This is by design.  It is a biogeographical and biological question.  The seed will only germinate under exact circumstances, dictated by the plant's DNA.  The plant will only germinate when certain environmental conditions have been met--often when plants are this picky, that means the seed is designed to either travel (light and easy for the wind to pick up), or are basically tanks that are simply waiting for a natural event to stimulate it's germination:  A prime example of this is when a fire sweeps an area clean, and the nutrients supplied by the ashes of the surrounding plants (often the seed's own parent) alerts the seed that it is time to grow.  The seed is designed to endure the fire, and sometimes will not grow unless the fire has came and went.

Just some insight into this topic, I doubt I answered your question, but it was fun trying!

-Mike

Answer 4

ya you are correct,because to germinate the seeds there need to

fulfill enough conditions i.e.,the seed should be tangible enough to survive & regenerate.Most of the cases the seeds are not so &

the environment is not suitable to regenerate.So the desert plants

regenerate hardly,if they do,they do it by other organs.Like leaves,

roots.  

Answer 5

scarcity of water