Editing Seed (section)

==== By animals (zoochory) ====
* Seeds ([[burr (fruit)|burrs]]) with barbs or hooks (e.g. [[acaena]], [[burdock]], [[Rumex|dock]]) which attach to animal fur or feathers, and then drop off later.
* Seeds with a fleshy covering (e.g. [[apple]], [[cherry]], [[juniper]]) are eaten by animals ([[bird]]s, [[mammal]]s, [[reptile]]s, [[fish]]) which then disperse these seeds in their [[faeces|droppings]].
* Seeds ([[nut (fruit)|nuts]]) are attractive long-term storable food resources for animals (e.g. [[acorn]]s, [[hazel]]nut, [[walnut]]); the seeds are stored some distance from the parent plant, and some escape being eaten if the animal forgets them.

'''[[Myrmecochory]]''' is the dispersal of seeds by [[ant]]s. Foraging ants disperse seeds which have appendages called [[elaiosome]]s<ref>{{cite journal | author = Marinelli J | year = 1999 | title = Ants&nbsp;– The astonishing intimacy between ants & plants | url = http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/wildlife/1999sp_ants.html | journal = Plants & Gardens News | volume = 14 | issue = 1 | url-status=live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060818062717/http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/wildlife/1999sp_ants.html | archive-date = 2006-08-18 }}</ref> (e.g. [[bloodroot]], [[trillium]]s, [[acacia]]s, and many species of [[Proteaceae]]). Elaiosomes are soft, fleshy structures that contain nutrients for animals that eat them. The ants carry such seeds back to their nest, where the elaiosomes are eaten. The remainder of the seed, which is hard and inedible to the ants, then germinates either within the nest or at a removal site where the seed has been discarded by the ants.<ref name="Ricklefs 1993">Ricklefs, Robert E. (1993) ''The Economy of Nature'', 3rd ed., p. 396. (New York: W.H. Freeman). {{ISBN|0-7167-2409-X}}.</ref> This dispersal relationship is an example of [[Mutualism (biology)|mutualism]], since the plants depend upon the ants to disperse seeds, while the ants depend upon the plants seeds for food. As a result, a drop in numbers of one partner can reduce success of the other. In [[South Africa]], the [[Argentine ant]] (''Linepithema humile'') has [[invasive species|invaded]] and displaced native species of ants. Unlike the native ant species, Argentine ants do not collect the seeds of ''[[Mimetes cucullatus]]'' or eat the elaiosomes. In areas where these ants have invaded, the numbers of ''Mimetes'' seedlings have dropped.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Bond, W.J. |author2=P. Slingsby  | year=1984 | title = Collapse of an ant-plant mutualism: The Argentine ant, ''Iridomyrmex humilis'' and myrmecochorous Proteaceae | journal = Ecology | volume=65 | issue = 4 | pages=1031–1037 | doi = 10.2307/1938311 | jstor = 1938311|bibcode=1984Ecol...65.1031B }}</ref>