106 Plant Reproduction

Sexual Reproduction in Plants

You need to know all about sexual reproduction in plants. Here’s how it works...

The Flower Contains Both Male and Female Gametes

You saw on the previous page that sexual reproduction involves fertilisation (fusion of two gamete nuclei).
Plants that reproduce sexually have both male and female gametes. Here’s where they come from:

The Stamen The Carpel

1) The stamen produces male gametes. 1) The carpel produces female gametes.
2) It consists of the anther and filament: 2) It consists of the stigma, style and ovary:

The anther contains pollen The stigma is the end bit that
grains — these produce the pollen grains attach to.
the male gametes (sperm).
Style
Filament
The ovary contains the female
gametes (eggs) inside ovules.
In insect-pollinated flowers (see
next page) the petals are often
brightly coloured to attract The sepals are green and leaf-like.
insects needed for pollination. They protect the flower in the bud.

Sexual Reproduction in Plants Involves Pollination

1) In plants, for fertilisation to occur, a process called pollination has to take place.

KEY
TERM
Pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from the anther to the stigma.

2) There are different types of pollination, depending on where the pollen has come from:

KEY Self-pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from the anther of a flower
TERM
to the stigma of the same flower or different flower on the same plant.

KEY Cross-pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from the anther of a

TERM
flower to the stigma of a flower on a different plant of the same species.
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3) There are different implications of self-pollination and cross-pollination: Pollinators are any
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animals that move

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• Self-pollinating plants don’t rely on pollinators. This means it is easier for pollen from the
the plant to spread to locations where there aren’t pollinators available. anther to the stigma.
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• Cross-pollinating plants rely on pollinators to transfer pollen grains elsewhere.

If the pollinator population declines, it becomes harder for a plant to reproduce.
• Cross-pollination produces more variation, meaning cross-pollinating plants are
more likely to be able to adapt and survive any changes in the environment.
• Self-pollination produces less variation because the gene pool (the mix of genes in
a population) is smaller. This means that self-pollinating plants are less likely to be
able to adapt to changes in the environment (see p.138).

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Plant Pollination
As you saw on the previous page, sexual reproduction in plants involves the transfer of pollen
from an anther to a stigma. Plants sometimes need a bit of outside help to get it done.

Some Plants are Adapted for Insect Pollination

Here’s how plants can be adapted for pollination by insects...

1) They have large brightly coloured petals to

attract insects to the anthers and stigmas inside.

2) They also have scented flowers and nectaries

(glands that secrete nectar) to attract insects.

3) The stigma is sticky so that any pollen picked up by insects on other plants will stick to the stigma.

Insect-pollinated plants make big, sticky pollen grains —

the grains stick to insects as they go from plant to plant.

Other Plants are Adapted for Wind Pollination

Features of plants that are adapted for pollination by wind include...

1) Small, dull petals (they don’t need to attract insects).

2) No nectaries or strong scents (for the same reason).

3) Long filaments that hang the anthers outside the flower,

so that a lot of the pollen gets blown away by the wind. Anther

4) A large and feathery stigma to catch pollen as it's carried past

by the wind. The stigma often hangs outside the flower too. Stigma

Wind-pollinated plants have lots of small, light pollen grains —

these grains can easily be carried to other plants by the wind.

Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther to a stigma

EX A M Flowers like roses (big, bright petals, a strong scent) are pollinated by insects. The feathery
TIP
looking flowers you sometimes see in long grass, and fluffy willow catkins, are pollinated by the
wind. If you’re given a picture of a flower in the exam, you should be able to say whether it’s
most likely to be insect- or wind-pollinated and explain your answer. So get learning this page.

Section 12 — Reproduction
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Fertilisation and Germination

On page 105, you saw that sexual reproduction can’t occur without fertilisation.
Here’s more about fertilisation in plants, and what happens after that...

Fertilisation is the Fusion of Gametes

1) Plant fertilisation occurs when the nucleus from a pollen grain
(the male gamete) fuses with the nucleus in an ovule (the female gamete).
2) Fertilisation doesn’t happen when the pollen grain reaches the stigma —
the pollen grain needs to get to the ovule:

• A pollen grain lands on the stigma of a flower, usually

Pollen grain
with help from insects or the wind (see previous page).

• A pollen tube grows out of the pollen grain and down

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through the style to the ovary and into the ovule. Pollen tube

Male nucleus
travelling to ovule
• A nucleus from the male gamete moves down the tube
to join with a female gamete in the ovule. Fertilisation Female nucleus
is when the two nuclei fuse together to make a zygote.
This divides by mitosis to form an embryo.

• Each fertilised female gamete forms a seed, which can then grow into a new plant.

Germination is when Seeds Start to Grow

1) Once a seed has formed following fertilisation, it will often lie dormant
until the conditions around it are right for germination (growth into a plant).
2) Seeds need the right conditions to start germinating, and germination only
starts when all of these conditions are suitable:

• Water — to activate the enzymes that break down the food reserves in the seed.

• Oxygen — for respiration (see page 78), which transfers the energy from food for growth.

• A suitable temperature — for the enzymes inside the

seed to work. This depends on what type of seed it is.

The conditions needed for germination are really important

When seeds are exposed to the right conditions, they will start to germinate. This won’t happen if
the conditions aren’t right though. Make sure you’ve learnt what conditions are needed and why.

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Investigating Seed Germination

If you’ve always wanted to investigate the different conditions needed for germination to take place,
then today is your lucky day...

You Can Investigate the Conditions Needed for Germination

You saw on the previous page that seeds need water, oxygen and a suitable temperature for
germination to happen. Here’s an experiment you can do to investigate these conditions.
1) Take four boiling tubes and put some
cotton wool at the bottom of each one. Tube 1 water, oxygen, room temperature (the control).
2) Put 10 seeds on top of the cotton wool Tube 2 no water, oxygen, room temperature.
in each boiling tube. Tube 3 water, oxygen, low temperature.
3) Set up each boiling tube as follows: Tube 4 water, no oxygen, room temperature.

Tube 1 Tube 2 Tube 3 Tube 4

oil
seeds
wet boiled water
cotton | || | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

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wool Boiled water doesn’t contain any

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wet dry

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dissolved oxygen. The layer of
cotton cotton oil stops the oxygen in the air
This tube is put
wool wool from dissolving in the water.
in the fridge.

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4) Leave the tubes for a few days and then observe what has happened.
5) It’s important to control all of the variables during the experiment.
You should only be changing one condition at a time so you know that
any effect on germination is due to the change in that one condition.
6) So, in Tube 2, the only change from the control (Tube 1) is a lack of water. In Tube 3,
only the temperature has changed. In Tube 4, the only change is the lack of oxygen.

Interpreting Your Observations

1) You should only see germination
happening in Tube 1. Tube 1 Tube 2 Tube 3 Tube 4
2) This is because all of the conditions
needed for germination are present.
3) The seeds in the other boiling tubes
won’t germinate — this shows that
the seeds need water, oxygen and a
suitable temperature to germinate.

You need the right conditions for germination to happen

ICAL
PRACT It’s really important that you label your four boiling tubes — if you don’t, you’ll end up with
TIP
no idea about what conditions are set up in each tube, and your results won’t mean anything.

Section 12 — Reproduction
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CtrlWarm-Up & Exam

+ Shift Select Questions
to bring onto page
It’s that time again. Don’t turn the page just yet — give these questions a go before you move on.
They’re the only way of finding out if you really know your stuff.

Warm-Up Questions
1) What is sexual reproduction?
2) What is meant by the term ‘fertilisation’?
3) What is meant by the term ‘self-pollination’?
S

Exam Questions

1 The diagram below shows cross-sections through two flowers.

A B

X Y

(a) Look at flower A. State the name and function of the structures labelled X and Y.
[4]
(b) Which flower, A or B, is better adapted for wind pollination? Explain your answer.
[2]
(c) Describe and explain two ways in which flowers can be adapted for pollination by insects.
[2]
[Total 8 marks]

2 A student set up a controlled experiment to investigate the conditions needed for germination.

She placed moist cotton wool and soaked alfalfa seeds in two large sealed flasks.
Flask A contained sodium pyrogallate solution, which absorbs oxygen from the air.
Flask B contained sodium hydroxide solution, which absorbs carbon dioxide from the air.
moist cotton
wool and
alfalfa seeds
sodium gauze sodium
pyrogallate hydroxide
solution solution

A B
After 24 hours, the student found that the seeds had germinated in flask B only.

Explain why germination did not occur in flask A.

[Total 2 marks]

Section 12 — Reproduction
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Revision
Ctrl + Shift Select Summary
to bring onto page
• Try these questions and tick off each one when you get it right.
• When you’ve done all the questions for a topic and are completely happy with it, tick off the topic.

Sexual Reproduction in Plants (p.106-109) 

7) On a plant, what is the function of: a) the petals, b) the sepals? 
8) What is pollination? 
9) What is cross-pollination? 
S

10) Describe the pollen grains of a wind-pollinated plant. 

11) How does pollen get from the stigma to the ovule? 
S

12) What happens during plant fertilisation? 

13) Give three conditions that are needed for germination to happen. 