Directional abscission of dandelion seed

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is one of the many species of plants that has successfully leveraged natural wind as their primary driver for seed dispersal. One of the important aspects of the wind-driven dispersal mechanism is how the seed is released, or abscissed, from the plant. Past studies have explored the effects of wind speed, temperature, and humidity on dandelion seed abscission. In our studies, we explored the effect of the wind direction. Our results show that the dandelion seeds' detachment from the receptacle is sensitive to the wind direction. Selective dispersion effected by wind direction suggests that dandelions could benefit from a wider distribution of its seed. This could in turn have important implications for their population dynamics.