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Flowers, pollination and fertilisation
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Flowers are the sexual reproductive organs of flowering plants. Their structure depends on how pollen is carried.
Parts of a flower
Stamen (male): an anther, which makes pollen, on a filament.
Carpel (female): a stigma that receives pollen, a style, and an ovary containing ovules.
Petals and sepals surround them.
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther to a stigma.
Carpel (female): a stigma that receives pollen, a style, and an ovary containing ovules.
Petals and sepals surround them.
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther to a stigma.
Insect and wind pollination
Fertilisation, seeds and fruit
A pollen grain on the stigma grows a pollen tube down through the style to an ovule.
The male nucleus travels down the tube and fuses with the female nucleus in the ovule. This is fertilisation, and it forms a zygote, which divides to form an embryo.
The ovule becomes the seed and the ovary becomes the fruit.
The male nucleus travels down the tube and fuses with the female nucleus in the ovule. This is fertilisation, and it forms a zygote, which divides to form an embryo.
The ovule becomes the seed and the ovary becomes the fruit.
A flower has small green petals, no scent and feathery stigmas hanging outside. How is it pollinated? Explain.
- It does not need to attract insects, so it has no large bright petals or scent.
- Feathery stigmas outside the flower catch pollen blown in the air.
Answer: By wind
Anthers make pollen; the stigma receives it. Insect-pollinated flowers have bright petals, nectar and sticky pollen. Wind-pollinated flowers have dangling anthers, feathery stigmas and light pollen. A pollen tube grows to the ovule; nuclei fuse; the ovule becomes a seed and the ovary a fruit.
The interactive lesson includes the diagrams for this topic.
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