Sweet mouth-watering fruits provide us with a healthy source of food, but that is not the reason why plants produce them. Fruit, and the seeds they protect, are crucial to species' survival.

A new book - written by two experts from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - reveals the ingenious and often devious strategies which plants have developed to help ensure their continued existence.

Here, with the help of colourful close up images, Kew's seed morphologist Wolfgang Stuppy explains some of the tactics:

Photographs courtesy Papadakis Publisher, Wolfgang Stuppy, Rob Kesseler.

Slideshow production Paul Kerley.

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