REPRODUCTION N PLANTS
• A flower is a reproductive structure of an
angiosperm.
• The parts of a flower are modified leaves that
develop from a thickened region of stem
called a receptacle
• Typical flower consists of four rings (whorls) of
modified leaves
• The outermost whorl is a calyx, which is a ring
of leaflike sepals, Sepals are photosynthetic
and inconspicuous; they enclose and protect
internal tissues before the flower opens.
• Just inside the calyx is the corolla (from the
Latin corona, or crown), which is a ring of
petals.
• Petals are typically the largest and most
brightly colored parts of a flower.
• Inside the corolla is a whorl of stamens, the
reproductive organs that produce the plant’s
male gametophytes.
• A typical stamen is a thin filament with an
anther at the tip.
• A typical anther consists of four pouches
called pollen sacs. Pollen grains, which are
immature male gametophytes, form inside
pollen sacs.
• The modified leaves making up a flower’s
innermost whorl fold and fuse into one or more
carpels: reproductive organs that produce female
gametophytes.
• A carpel (or a compound structure that consists of
multiple fused carpels) is commonly called a pistil.
• The upper region of a carpel is a sticky or hairy
• stigma that is specialized to receive pollen grains.
• Typically, the stigma sits on top of a slender
stalk called a style.
• The lower, swollen region of a carpel is the
ovary, which contains one or more ovules. In
seed plants, an ovule, is the part of the carpel
where the female gametophyte forms
Pollination
• Pollination is the arrival of pollen on a stigma
or other pollen-receiving reproductive part of
a seed plant.
• “Perfect” flowers have both stamens and
carpels, so they can potentially pollinate
themselves.
• “Imperfect” flowers, which lack stamens or
carpels cannot.
• Pollination is essential to sexual reproduction
in flowering plants. The diversity of flower
form reflects a dependence on pollination
vectors: animals or environmental agents that
transfer pollen from anther to stigma.
Life Cycle of typical flowering plant
SEED DEVELOPMENT
• In most flowering plants, double fertilization produces a zygote
and a triploid (3n) cell, and both immediately begin mitotic
divisions.
• The zygote develops into an embryo sporophyte, and the
triploid cell develops into endosperm.
• As the embryo matures, the ovule’s integuments develop into
a tough seed coat.
• A mature ovule is a seed, a self-contained package that
consists of an embryo sporophyte, its reserves of food, and the
seed coat.
• The seed may undergo dormancy until it receives signals that
environmental conditions are appropriate for germination.
• As a seed is forming inside an ovule, the
parent plant transfers nutrients into it.
• These nutrients accumulate in endosperm
mainly as starch with some lipids and proteins.
In typical monocots, nutrients stay in
endosperm as the seed matures.
• By contrast, a maturing eudicot embryo
transfers nutrients from the endosperm to its
cotyledons (seed leaves).
A fruit is a seed-containing mature ovary, often with fleshy tissues
that developed from the ovary wall as the seed formed. Apples,
oranges, and grapes are familiar fruits, but so are many
“vegetables” such as beans, peas, tomatoes, grains, eggplant, and
squash.
ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION
• Many flowering plants can reproduce asexually by a natural
process called vegetative reproduction, in which new roots
and shoots grow from extensions or pieces of a parent
plant.
• Each new plant is a clone, a genetic replica of its parent.
New plants can form via roots and shoots that sprout from
nodes on stems, or in some cases from pericycle in roots.
• Entire forests of quaking aspen trees (Populus tremuloides)
are actually stands of clones that arose from root suckers—
shoots that sprout from shallow lateral roots.
