Sexual Reproduction in Plants | Plants | Biology | FuseSchool
Channel: FuseSchool - Global Education
Date: 2017-12-11

Sexual Reproduction in Plants | Plants | Biology | FuseSchool

In this video, we will be looking at sexual reproduction in plants.
 
Did you know that there are an estimated 390,900 plant species known to science? This diversity of plant species is, in part, due to sexual reproduction. In plants, sexual reproduction is carried out in the flowers. The flowers contain the sexual organs.   

Let’s start with labelling the different parts of a flower.
The petals and sepals help to protect the flower bud and can be brightly coloured or scented to attract pollinators.
The stem and receptacle are the parts that connect the flower to the rest of the plant.
The stamen is the male part of the flower. It consists of the anther where pollen is produced and the filament which is the stalk that supports the anther. These structures are responsible for the production and positioning of pollen, the male gamete.
The female part of the flower is called the carpel and this consists of three parts: the stigma – a sticky landing for pollen, the style - where the pollen grain descends and the ovary where female gametes or sex cells are located. Within the ovary, ovules produce female gametes.
 
So how does pollination work?

Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male anther of one flower to the female stigma of another. Flowers can be pollinated in different ways: By wind and water, or by pollinators such as insects, birds and other animals. 

Flowers pollinated by pollinators are structurally different to those pollinated by wind or water. 

Look at the differences in size, scent and colour of petals, and the positioning of the stamen and style. Here are some of the key differences. Why do you think they are different?

Did you know that pollinators are very important to our food supply? They pollinate plants that are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food! 

Once a plant has been pollinated, fertilisation can occur. Fertilisation results in the production of seeds. A mature pollen grain containing two male sex cells has landed on the ‘female’ stigma of the same species. The pollen grain grows a pollen tube, that goes down the ‘female’ style to the ovary where it enters through an opening called the micropyle. The male sex cells travel from the pollen grain down the pollen tube to the female ovule. Here, one male sex cell fuses with the female egg, fertilising it. This develops into a seed. The other male sex cell attaches to two cells in the embryo sac, forming an endosperm. This provides the starchy food for the seed to grow. The ovary enlarges and becomes a fruit, surrounding the internal seeds.

The fruits and seeds are dispersed in many ways, some even by us humans, where they will again grow into a new plant under the correct conditions, completing the long cycle of sexual reproduction in plants!

So there we have sexual reproduction in plants. Pollination has to happen before fertilisation. The male pollen is produced in the anther, where it is then dispersed during pollination. The female parts of the flower are the stigma, style and the ovary.


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