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 48 Cochlosperum fruits DHJanzen100816.jpg high resolution
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| These dry Cochlospermum fruits, viewed from below as they dehisce, are about to release their many small cotton fluff-covered seeds that will be blown by the wind as they fall. While such a fruit has nothing that attracts a seed-dispersing animal, the seeds themselves are highly edible and seed predators may take the seeds directly from the fruits or get the small seeds once dispersed. As a general rule, the very small seeds produced in large numbers by early successional woody plants are quite edible (the plant is investing very little in chemical defenses) in contrast to the larger seeds of longer-lived trees in later successional stages, seeds that tend to be richer in toxic defense chemicals. | ||
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