For example, when corn was first grown in North and South America thousands of years ago, the corn cobs farmers harvested were smaller than your little finger. Today, there are hundreds of varieties of corn, some of which produce cobs as long as your forearm. How Plants Reproduce Just as every person is different and unique, so is each plant. Some have traits like better colour, yield, or storage capability. Researchers have looked for methods that would allow them to make exact copies of these superior individuals.
Plants usually reproduce by forming seeds through sexual reproduction.
That is, egg cells in the flowers are fertilized by pollen from the stamens of the plants. Each of these sexual cells contains chromosomes. Chromosomes carry the genetic information which determines whether the flower will be red and not purple or the plant high or low yielding. During sexual reproduction, chromosomes are combined in new and unpredictable ways, creating unique organisms. This is why you may resemble your mother or your father, but don't look exactly like either of them.