section_path: Seed dispersal/Allochory/Abiotic vectors
section_name: Abiotic vectors
paragraph_text: Abiotic vectors
  
  In abiotic dispersal plants use the vectors of the wind, water, or a mechanism of their own to transport their seeds away from them. Anemochory involves using the wind as a vector to disperse plant's seeds. Because these seeds have to travel in the wind, they are almost always small — sometimes even dust-like, have a high surface-area-to-volume ratio, and are produced in a large number — sometimes up to a million. Plants such as tumbleweeds detach the entire shoot to let the seeds roll away with the wind. Another common adaptation are wings, plumes or balloon-like structures that let the seeds stay in the air for longer and hence travel farther.
  
  In hydrochory plants are adapted to disperse their seeds through bodies of water and so typically are buoyant and have a low relative density with regards to the water. Commonly seeds are adapted morphologically with hydrophobic surfaces, small size, hairs, slime, oil, and sometimes air spaces within the seeds. These plants fall into three categories: ones where seeds are dispersed on the surface of water currents, under the surface of water currents, and by rain landing on a plant.