What comes out of a seed first?

Have you ever held a dry bean in your hand? Feel how hard and smooth it is. It looks still and sleepy, like a pebble.

But a bean is a seed, and a seed can grow into a whole plant. So when a seed starts to grow, what comes out of it first? Let's find out together.

A seed feels hard because it wears a seed coat, which means a tough skin wrapped all around it. The seed coat keeps the baby plant inside safe and dry. In there, the baby plant waits, curled up small.

Now the seed lies in the soil, and rain soaks the ground. The seed drinks the water in. It starts to swell, which means it grows fatter by soaking up water. The water wakes the baby plant inside.

The seed swells and swells. Soon the seed coat is too tight, and it cracks open. What do you think peeks out of the crack first? A little leaf, or a little root?

It is a root! A tiny white root pokes out through the seed coat. It grows down, down into the dark soil.

The root comes first because the baby plant is thirsty. The root drinks water from the soil and brings it to the seed. With that water, the baby plant can keep on growing.

Seed coat. Swell. Water makes a seed swell until its seed coat cracks, and a root comes out first.

Next time you hold a seed, you can think of the root waiting inside. Sleep well, and dream of growing things.