Plants have a variety of strategies to disperse their seeds. For instance, many species utilize animals to help cast their seeds across larger distances than is possible by wind dispersal alone. Often this involves the production of edible fruit surrounding one or more seeds, the consumption of which by animals results in the seeds being passed some distance from the source tree. Frogs, which rarely consume vegetable matter, are among the least likely candidates for seed dispersal; surprisingly, Gould and Valdez (2024) document Australian Litoria fallax potentially serving just this role. Approximately 30% of frogs in their study population had seeds of the broad-leaved cumbungi plant, Typha orientalis, adhered to their moist skin. Individual frogs were found with up to 14 of these small seeds, which are filamentous in form and typically wind pollinated, attached to their skin. This study highlights a previously unknown plant-amphibian interaction, and showcases the small but real possibility of frog-mediated dispersal involving other plant and amphibian species.

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