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REPRODUCTION IN
FLOWERING
PLANTS
M Sc III General Botany

Reproduction
Flower of the common
chickweed. This plant
(Stellaria media) is a weedy
annual native to Europe
but widespread in North
America. Each flower has
five green sepals, five
deeply notched yellow
petals, three to five pollen-
bearing stamens (this
flower has three), and a
single pistil.

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Reproduction
• Flowering plants, or angiosperms, include about
300,000 species and are the largest, most
successful group of plants.

• The flower is the site of sexual reproduction in

angiosperms.

• Sexual reproduction in plants includes meiosis and

the fusion of reproductive cells-egg and sperm
cells, collectively called gametes. The union of
gametes, called fertilization, occurs within the
flower’s ovary.

Floral structure

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Floral structure

An Arabidopsis thaliana flower.

Each flower has four sepals
(two are shown), four petals,
six stamens, and one long pistil.
Four of the stamens are long,
and two are short. Pollen grains
develop within sacs in the
anthers. In Arabidopsis, the
compound pistil consists of two
carpels that each contain
numerous ovules.

Floral structure
The sepals, which are the most leaf like of all the
flower parts, are usually green, and they protect
the bud as the flower develops within.
Collectively, the sepals are called the calyx.

An open flower next has a whorl of petals,

whose color accounts for the attractiveness of
many flowers. Collectively, the petals are called
the corolla.

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Floral structure
Stamens are the “male” portion of the flower.
Each stamen has two parts: the anther, a saclike
container, and the filament, a slender stalk.
Pollen grains develop from the microspores
produced in the anther.
At the very center of a flower is the carpel. A
carpel usually has three parts: the stigma, an
enlarged sticky knob; the style, a slender stalk;
and the ovary, an enlarged base that encloses
one or more ovules

Variations in
Flower Structure
Not all flowers have sepals, petals, stamens, or
carpels. Those that do are said to be complete
and those that do not are said to be incomplete.

Flowers that have both stamens and carpels are

called perfect (bisexual) flowers; those with only
stamens and those that have only carpels are
imperfect (unisexual) flowers.

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Variations in
Flower Structure

If staminate flowers and carpellate flowers are on one

plant, the plant is monoecious. Corn is an example of a
plant that is monoecious.

Variations in
Flower Structure
Papaya

MALE PLANT FEMALE PLANT

If staminate and carpellate flowers are on
separate plants, the plant is dioecious.

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Life Cycle in Detail

In all land plants, the sporophyte produces
haploid spores by meiosis. The haploid spores
grow and develop into haploid gametophytes,
which produce gametes by mitotic division.
Flowering plants, however, are heterosporous-
they produce microspores and megaspores.
Microspores become mature male
gametophytes (sperm-bearing pollen grains),
and megaspores become mature female
gametophytes (egg bearing embryo sacs).

Life Cycle in Detail

Female gametophytes are produced in the ovary,
male gametophytes in the anther.

In alternation of generations in flowering plants,

the female and male gametophytes are
microscopic and nutritionally dependent on the
sporophyte plant.

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Life Cycle in Detail

Development of Male
Gametophyte
ü Microspores are produced in the anthers of flowers.
ü An anther has four pollen sacs, each containing many
microspore mother cells.
ü A microspore mother cell undergoes meiosis to
produce four haploid microspores.
ü In each, the haploid nucleus divides mitotically,
followed by unequal cytokinesis, and the result is two
cells enclosed by a finely sculptured wall.

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Development of Male
Gametophyte
This structure, called the pollen grain, is at first an
immature male gametophyte that consists of a
tube cell and a generative cell.

The larger tube cell will eventually produce a pollen

tube. The smaller generative cell divides mitotically
either now or later to produce two sperm.

Once these events take place, the pollen grain has

become the mature male gametophyte.

Development of Male
Gametophyte

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Development of Female
Gametophyte
The ovary contains one or more ovules.
An ovule has a central mass of parenchyma cells almost
completely covered by layers of tissue called
integuments except where there is an opening, the
micropyle.
One parenchyma cell enlarges to become a megaspore
mother cell, which undergoes meiosis, producing four
haploid megaspores.
Three of these megaspores are nonfunctional, and one is
functional.

Development of Female
Gametophyte
In a typical pattern, the nucleus of the functional
megaspore divides mitotically until there are eight
nuclei in the female.
When cell walls form later, there are seven cells, one
of which is binucleate. The female gametophyte, also
called the embryo sac, consists of these seven cells:
ü one egg cell, associated with two synergid cells;
ü one central cell, with two polar nuclei;
ü three antipodal cells

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 Gametophyte
Development of Female

Development of female and male

gametophytes
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Development of New
Sporophyte
The walls separating the pollen sacs in the anther
break down when the pollen grains are ready to
be released.
Pollination is simply the transfer of pollen from
an anther to the stigma of a carpel.
Self-pollination occurs if the pollen is from the
same plant, and cross-pollination occurs if the
pollen is from a different plant of the same
species.

Pollination

a. C o c k s f o o t g r a s s ,
Dactylus glomerata,
releasing pollen.
b. P o l l e n g r a i n s o f
Canadian goldenrod,
Solidago canadensis.
c. P o l l e n g r a i n s o f
pussy willow, Salix
discolor.

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FERTILIZATION
Once a pollen grain has been spread by wind, by
animals, or through self-pollination, it adheres to
the sticky, sugary substance that covers the
stigma and begins to grow a pollen tube that
pierces the style.
The pollen tube, nourished by the sugary
substance, grows until it reaches the ovule in the
ovary. Meanwhile, the generative cell within the
pollen grain tube cell divides to form two sperm
cells.

FERTILIZATION
Once a pollen tube penetrates the ovule, the
attracting signals are no longer produced. As a
result, only one pollen tube enters each female
gametophyte.

The second cell within the pollen grain divides to

form two male gametes (the sperm cells), which
move down the pollen tube and enter the ovule

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FERTILIZATION

Double fertilization in
flowering plants
When the pollen tube reaches the micropyle,
double fertilization occurs.

As expected, one of the sperm unites with the

egg, forming a 2n zygote.

The other sperm unites with two polar nuclei

centrally placed in the embryo sac, forming a 3n
endosperm nucleus.

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Double fertilization in
flowering plants
This endosperm nucleus eventually develops into
the, a nutritive tissue that the developing
embryonic sporophyte will use as an energy
source.
Now the ovule begins to develop into a seed.
One important aspect of seed development is
formation of the seed coat from the ovule wall. A
mature seed contains (1) the embryo, (2) stored
food, and (3) the seed coat (see Fig. 27.8).

Pollination, pollen tube

growth, and double
fertilization

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Fertilized embryo sac

showing zygote and
Primary Endosperm
Nucleus

Double fertilization in
flowering plants
The process, in which two separate cell fusions
occur, is called double fertilization.
It is, with few exceptions, unique to flowering
plants. (A type of double fertilization has been
reported in two gymnosperm species, Ephedra
nevadensis and Gnetum gnemon.)
After double fertilization, the ovule develops into
a seed and the surrounding ovary develops into a
fruit

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Asexual Reproduction
Asexual reproduction is the production of an
offspring identical to a single parent. Asexual
reproduction is less complicated in plants
because pollination and seed production is not
required.
In a very common form of asexual reproduction
called vegetative reproduction, new plant
individuals are simply cloned from parts of
adults. The forms of vegetative reproduction in
plants are many and varied.

Vegetative Reproduction

Flowering plants have many kinds of vegetative

reproduction, several of which involve modified
stems: rhizomes, tubers, bulbs, corms, and
stolons.

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Rhizome
A rhizome is a horizontal
underground stem that may
or may not be fleshy.
Fleshiness indicates that the
rhizome is used for storing
food materials, such as
starch

Irises have horizontal underground

stems called rhizomes. New aerial
shoots arise from buds that
develop on the rhizome.

Rhizome

Rhizomes frequently branch in different

directions. Over time, the old portion of the
rhizome dies, and the two branches eventually
separate to become distinct plants.

Irises, bamboos, ginger, and many grasses are

examples of plants that reproduce asexually by
forming rhizomes.

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Tuber
Some rhizomes produce greatly thickened ends
called tubers, which are fleshy underground
stems enlarged for food storage.

Potatoes and elephant’s ear (Caladium) are

examples of plants that produce tubers.

The “eyes” of a potato are axillary buds,

evidence that the tuber is an underground stem
rather than a storage root such as a sweet
potato or carrot.

Tuber

Tuber. Potato plants

form rhizomes, which
enlarge into tubers
(the potatoes) at the
ends.

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Bulb

A bulb is a modified
underground bud in which
fleshy storage leaves are
attached to a short stem. A
bulb is globose (round) and
covered by paper like bulb
scales, which are modified
leaves.

e.g., Lilies, tulips, onions, and daffodils are some plants that form
bulbs.

Corm

Corm. A corm is an
underground stem
that is almost entirely
s t e m t i s s u e
surrounded by a few
papery scales.

Familiar garden plants that produce corms include crocus,

gladiolus, and cyclamen.

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Stolon

Stolons, or runners,
are horizontal,
aboveground stems
that grow along the
surface and have long
internodes.

Strawberries reproduce asexually by forming stolons, or

runners. New plants (shoots and roots) are produced at every
other node.

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