The section opens by calling the buzzy burr a stowaway and contrasting it with the dandelion. Where the dandelion shows how animals benefit from plants, the buzzy burr shows the reverse: some seeds depend on animals to survive and spread.

The chapter then describes the buzzy burr as a Shearwater flowering plant that resembles a dandelion but has a darker, wirier flower and hooked seeds instead of drifting propellers. Because those seeds cannot travel on the wind, they cling tightly to feathers, especially the feathers of wandering albatrosses.

The narrative follows one seed as it catches on an albatross and rides with the bird when it leaves its chick and begins a vast journey. The albatross circles the globe three times in a year and, on the third trip, lands on the coast of Argentina, where the seed is finally deposited in a new alpine home among glaciers and fjords.

The chapter ends by imagining feeling between the two travelers. The albatross seems to have carried the seed deliberately and to leave it with a blessing, while the seed seems to answer with gratitude, turning dispersal into a small story of connection, endurance, and renewal.