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Let’s talk seed intelligence. Yeah, you heard me.

On the southwestern tip of Florida is a mangrove swamp, one of many. This swamp gets fed nutrients by the ebb and flow of the tide, which is one of the reasons it makes such a rich and diverse ecosystem. Its bacteria feed worms, oysters, barnacles, billions of them, and these feed fish and shrimp, which feed all kinds of water birds, as well as the odd crocodile.

The brilliance of this comes down to the intelligence of the mangrove seeds. Unlike most plants, which need soil to germinate, the mangroves have evolved a special way of helping their offspring survive. Instead of dropping the seeds like most plants do, they germinate while still attached to the parent tree (Dad would love this; if he could keep us attached forever I think he would), and then the seedling grows within the fruit, fed by photosynthesis, until it’s ready to drop into the water.

This seed is more buoyant than other seeds. It knows where it’s going and how it will get around: it’s going to use the current. The seed travels along the Gulf Coast, looking for its new home. But something doesn’t feel quite right to this seed, it detects some deficiency in the environment, some warning that the conditions aren’t quite right. So it carries on, traveling around to Louisiana. The marshes here are healthy. The seed decides to stay. It physically changes its density—yep, you heard that right—so that it floats vertically instead of horizontally. This way it has a chance to lodge in the mud and send out roots.

But it doesn’t lodge. It tries, it fails. It carries on. It changes its density back, so that it can float more easily and continue its search.

It has now altered its own form twice, by its own choice, in order to survive.

It travels on, carried by the ocean currents, down into Mexico and farther around the Gulf. At last it reaches the Yucatán Peninsula, so mangrove rich it’s an oasis for the seed, a place to make a home. The seed changes itself yet again and this time it works! This time its long body is caught in the mud and able to take root. It can grow as part of this new mangrove swamp, which is so crucial to the health of the wetlands. And I think it must be relieved, I think it’s earned its place in this ecosystem, this little seed; after all, it’s been traveling and changing and searching for an entire year.

Is this how you feel after being swept in on a current? Will you change shape and put down roots? Or carry on in search of somewhere better?