Plant Reproduction

• Plant reproduction

  • Depends on pollination, fertilization and seed dispersal
• Ways plants can reproduce

  • Vegetative propagation (asexual reproduction from a plant cutting)
  • Spore formations (e.g. moulds, ferns)
  • Pollen transfer (flowering plants – angiospermophytes)
• Sexual reproduction in flowering plants

  1. Pollen transfer (male gamete) to an ova (female gamete)

  2. Pollination

  3. Fertilization

  4. Seed dispersal
• Pollination

  The transfer of pollen grains from an anther (male plant structure) to a stigma (female plant structure)
• Many plants possess both male and female structures (monoecious) and can potentially self-pollinate
• From an evolutionary perspective, cross-pollination is preferable as it improves genetic diversity
• Fertilisation

  Fusion of a male gamete nuclei with a female gamete nuclei to form a zygote
• Seed dispersal

  Fertilisation of gametes results in the formation of a seed, which moves away from the parental plant
• Seed structure will vary depending on the mechanism of dispersal employed by the plant
• Most flowering plants use mutualistic relationships with pollinators in sexual reproduction
• Cross-pollination

  Transferring pollen grains from one plant to the ovule of a different plant
• Pollinators

  • Birds
  • Bats
  • Insects (including bees and butterflies)
• Flowers may be structured to optimise access for certain pollinators (e.g. tube-shaped flowers for birds with long beaks)