What Are Some Outstanding Properties Of Plant Seeds?

Plants usually produce seed prolifically. This is essential, for tons of seeds are eaten as food by insects, birds, other creatures, and by humans. Now, if only one seed, or a few, would be produced by a plant, such would be eaten and that species of plant would disappear. Also, seeds fall on many sorts of terrain and some never germinate. Unfavorable weather, fungus and other factors may prevent many seeds from sprouting. For this reason there must be liberal seed production. Therefore, it is not, as some have said, that "nature is very wasteful." Rather, it is prolific, and there appears to be design in this liberality. It is necessary that plants produce hundreds, even thousands, of seeds. Some trees yield millions of seeds per acre. Certainly we cannot say that such prodigious seed production does not serve a purpose. And does not purpose require design?

The seeds that are produced must also have strong germinating power, for some may have to survive months of winter, droughts or long periods of unfavorable conditions. Most seeds have remarkable germinating power, as much as 90-percent viability. A seed may be completely dry, its life being suspended. But in its inert condition it can withstand extremes of temperature, in many cases far below freezing, or almost as high as the boiling point of water (though not in water). Even after a lapse of years, seeds will come to life when placed in water or in moist soil. An Indian lotus sprouted and flowered after a dormancy in the seed state for 2,000 years, and cuttings and seeds from it have been sent to botanical institutions throughout the world.