-chore, -choric, -chorous, -chory
(Greek: a suffix: to spread, to disperse; to move, to go; to withdraw, to advance; a means or agency for distribution)
How Seeds of Plants Are Spread for Reproduction
Plants have various ways of scattering their seeds so young plants can spread around to grow away from their producers so they don't compete with each other in order to survive.
Many seeds are carried by wind, animals, or water; and some have fruits that are eaten by animals, which then deposit the seeds in their droppings.
The seeds of palm trees can also be dispersed by the
hydrochoricprocess and if they grow near oceans, the seeds can be transported by ocean currents over long distances, allowing the seeds to be dispersed as far as other continents.
Plants in which hydrochories occur include water plantains, arrowheads, flowering rushes, bur reeds, and pondweeds.
Seeds of myrmecochorous plants have a lipid-rich attachment called the elaiosome, which attracts ants. Ants carry such seeds into their colonies, feed the elaiosome to their larvae and discard the otherwise intact seed in an underground chamber.
Myrmecochory is a coevolved mutualistic relationship between plants and seed-disperser ants.
Harvesting ants do not manage to carry all the seeds they collect back to their nests, and they do not eat all of the seeds stored in their granaries.
The result is that ants are a major and fortuitous dispersal agent for plants. They are especially effective in deserts and grasslands, but many species, not necessarily specialized harvesters, play some role even in tropical forests.
Pleustochory is believed to occur on many bodies of water; such as, pools, lakes, and even flowing water; when there are source plants nearby.
Pleustochory has been shown to play an important role in the speedy delivery of willow seeds to the sides of pools. Willow seeds have been measured sailing at speeds greater than five meters (16.40 feet) per minute on standing water.
2. Etymology: from Greek pleust, "to sail" or "to float" + chore, "to move, to spread".