How Does a Cactus Seed Itself?

Pollination

• Cactus produce seed the same way as other plants, by making flowers that contain male genetic material in the form of pollen and female genetic material inside the flower's stigma. Both the pollen and the sugary nectar produced in the flower are attractive food sources to insects, birds and bats, which visit the flowers, carrying pollen back and forth. Most cactus plants can only be pollinated with pollen from a different cactus plant, ensuring genetic diversity within the species.

Seed Formation

• When pollen from one cactus flower lands on the stigma of a receptive flower on a different plant, the genetic material from the two plants combines, forming the embryonic plant structure we know as a seed. This seed, along with its neighbors, grow inside a sweet, fleshy covering -- the cactus fruit. This fruit, properly classified as a berry, aids in seed dispersal. A single cactus may produce up to a million seeds, but it is rare for more than a few to grow successfully in such a harsh environment.

Seed Dispersal

• While cactus seeds may be dispersed by the elements -- wind and rain -- most are spread by animals that eat the fruit, seeds included. In a desert, succulent cactus fruits are irresistible to birds and mammals, which consume them within weeks of their production. The seeds are impervious to digestion, and pass through the animal's digestive tract intact before being deposited on the ground, complete with a bit of natural fertilizer in the form of feces.

Other Propagation Methods

• In the absence of sexual reproduction and seed formation, cacti have other methods of reproducing themselves in nature. Part of a cactus plant can often form roots and become a separate plant when detached. Indeed, some species like prickly pears and cholla cactus have jointed "arms" that break off relatively easily. If a broken joint falls on the ground in favorable conditions, it may root and grow into a new plant next to its parent.