Yet in some significant ways plants are very different from animals. Cells have fixed positions . Therefore, differentiation proceeds according to the cell's position within the embryo. Mitosis is restricted to special areas of the embryo and growing plant called meristems, which we have already seen in root and shoot meristem regions. Most plants have open growth .
Plants produce a structure, the sporangium , in which meiosis occurs which animals lack.
The product of meiosis in plants is a haploid cell called a spore , which is not a gamete, and in fact, grows by mitosis to produce the structures which do form gametes. Variations in life history are essential to classification in the Plant Kingdom. It is important, then, for us to understand the plant life history and just what alternation of generations means. This information will be very important when we turn to diversity, and look at the different groups of plants with which we share this earth, too. For flowering plants, the answer is the Flower.