Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I.Plant Reproduction
A.Asexual Reproduction
Parent
Bud
Budding of hydra
FIGURE 13. 2______________________________________
Parent planaria
Fragments of
planaria
Daughter of
planaria
Fragmentation of planaria
FIGURE 13. 3______________________________________
B. Sexual Reproduction
Female cell
Male Empty
gematangium male
cell
Conjugation
process
Conjugation
Zygospore
tube
Zygote
Anther
Stamen
Filament
Awn
Palea
Lemma
Stigma
Style Pistil
Ovary
Pollen Sac
Tapetum
Meiosis I Meiosis II
Microsporocyte
MICROSPOROGENESIS Tetrad
Released Polarised
microspore microspore Bicellular
pollen Tricellular
MICROGAMETOGENESIS pollen
FIGURE 13. 8_Lilium sp. ovary cross section LPO_
a.Dicot
FIGURE 13. 9_C. bursa ovule (left) and embryo (right) HPO_
b.Monocot
b.Monocot
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Why is the flower considered to be the dominant component of the reproductive cycle of
flowering plants? What are the functions of the flower?
The flower is the only sexual reproductive part of all angiosperm plants. For this
reason, it is the dominant component of the reproductive cycle of the flowering plants since
it plays a major role in all of the plant’s reproductive cycle such as initiating fertilization.
The function of the flower is to serve as the reproductive organ of a plant. Also, flowers
attract pollinators.
2. What is probably the most important advantage of sexual reproduction over asexual
reproduction?
In sexual reproduction, more variations are produced. Thus, it ensures survival of
species in a population. Also, the newly formed individual has characteristics of both the
parents. Finally, variations are more viable in sexual mode than in asexual one. This is
because in asexual reproduction, DNA has to function inside the inherited cellular
apparatus.
3. Specify the roles/functions of the following:
a. Seed coat - helps protect the embryo from mechanical injury, predators and
drying out.
c. Nucellus - the central and chief part of a plant ovule that encloses the female
gametophyte.
k. Integuments - perforated by a pore, the micropyle, through which the pollen tube
can enter
Apical meristem – Found in shoots and roots. These differentiate into three kinds
of primary meristems. The primary meristems in turn produce the two secondary
meristem types. These secondary meristems are also known as lateral meristems
because they are involved in lateral growth.
Lateral meristems - meristem located along the sides of a part, as a stem or root.
The division of lateral meristems gives rise to the secondary growth
The shoot apical meristem is composed of two layers: the outer layer
turnica and inner layer corpus. Cells in the tunica layers would divide anticlinally,
whereas cells in the corpus divide in all planes.
Anticlinal and periclinal cell division are both different ways of cell
division. Periclinal cell divisions are the ones that occur parallel to the tissue or
organ surface. As a result, we get rows of cells stacked one over the other. The
anticlinal cell division on the other hand, are perpendicular cell divisions to the
adjacent layer of cells so the tissue formed is composed of cells adjacent to each
other.
5. Name some external and internal factors which can affect germination of seeds. Explain the
role(s) of each factor.
External factors:
i) Water – water plays a very important part in seed germination since a dormant seed
is dehydrated and needs 75-95% water to carry out metabolism. Therefore, it needs to
absorb external water to germinate.
ii) Oxygen – oxygen is necessary for respiration which releases the energy needed for
growth. Germinating seeds respire very actively and need sufficient oxygen.
iii) Temperature – Seed germination can take place over a wide range of moderate to
warm temperatures (5-40ºC), the most optimum for most of the crop plants is around
25-30ºC. The germination in most cases stops at 0ºC to 45ºC.
Internal factors:
i) Immature seed – Some plants have embryos that is not fully mature at the time of
seed shedding. Such seeds do not germinate until the embryo attains maturity.
ii) Insufficient growth hormones – The freshly shed seed in certain plants may not
have sufficient amounts of growth hormones required for the growth of embryo. The
seeds require some interval of time during which the hormones get synthesized.
iii) Viability periods – Seeds of almost all the plants remain viable or living for a
specific period of time. This viability period ranges from a few weeks to many years.
Seeds of lotus have the maximum viability period of 1000 years. Seeds germinate
before the ending of their viability periods.