Sexual Reproduction of

Flowering Plants
What would happen if plants did not have the
ability to reproduce?
• Plants are essential for life as we know it on earth.
• Plants are the ecological producers of our planet.
• They provide food and shelter for other organisms,
produce oxygen to support animal respiration, and
enrich our environment.
What would happen if plants did not have the
ability to reproduce?
• Throughout history, people have relied on seeds and
plant parts to grow new plants for food and fiber.
• In more recent times, knowledge of plant
reproduction has resulted in the development of
plant hybrids that have enabled large scale
agricultural production of food and fiber plants.
 How is sexual reproduction different from
asexual reproduction and what is the
advantage of sexual reproduction?
• Sexual reproduction occurs when the male sperm
carried in the pollen unites with the female egg
within a flower.
How is sexual reproduction different from
asexual reproduction and what is the
advantage of sexual reproduction?

• The male sex cell (sperm) and the female sex cell
(egg) are known as gametes.
• The union of the gametes produces the seed that
contains the embryo plant and stored food.
 How is sexual reproduction different from
asexual reproduction and what is the
advantage of sexual reproduction?
• Both the male sperm and female egg contribute
genetic information to the new embryo plant.
• The union of sperm and egg results in new
combinations of genetic information.
• These combinations produce new traits that add to
the vigor of the offspring.
 How is sexual reproduction different from
asexual reproduction and what is the
advantage of sexual reproduction?
• The offspring that result from this new combination
of genes are known as hybrids.
• People have greatly improved agricultural crops
through hundreds of years of hybridization.
 How is sexual reproduction different from
asexual reproduction and what is the
advantage of sexual reproduction?
• The genes (deoxyribonucleic acid) are located in
chromosomes.
• Normal plant cells contain a pair of chromosomes
and are said to be diploid.
• Reproductive cells, the egg and the sperm, contain a
single chromosome and are said to be haploid.
• Many grasses and flowering plants have three or
more sets of chromosomes. They are called
polyploid.
 How is sexual reproduction different from
asexual reproduction and what is the
advantage of sexual reproduction?
• Fertilization unites the single chromosome in the
sperm nucleus with the single chromosome in the
egg nucleus.
• This enables the fertilized egg or zygote to have a
complete pair of chromosomes (diploid).
• Plant fertilization is unique because the sperm
contains two nuclei.
• Flowering plants have a double fertilization.
 Fertilization generally means fusion of a sperm
nucleus with an egg nucleus.

 After landing on a receptive stigma, the pollen

grain absorbs moisture and germinates,
producing a pollen tube that extends down
the style toward the ovary.

 The generative cells divides by mitosis to

produce two male gametes.
 The tip of the pollen tube enters the ovary
probes through the micropyle and discharges
two male gametes within the embryo sac.

 Both male gametes fuse with nuclei in the

embryo sac
7.2.4 (a) : Fertilization
 One male gamete fertilizes the egg to form the
zygote (2n).

 The other male gamete combines with the

two polar nuclei to form a triploid nucleus (3n)
known as the primary endosperm nucleus in
the central cell.
 This large cell will give rise to the endosperm,
a food-storing tissue of the seed.

 The union of two male gametes cells with

different nuclei of the embryo sac is termed
double fertilization.
 Sperm/male gamete

Fig. 7.2.4 (b) : Double Fertilization

 Double fertilization is also present in a few
gymnosperms, probably via independent
evolution.
 Double fertilization ensures that the
endosperm will develop only in the ovules
where the egg has been fertilized.
 This prevents angiosperms from squandering
nutrients in eggs that lack an embryo.
 Formation and Development of The Seeds

• After double fertilization, the ovule develops into a seed and the
ovary develops into a fruit enclosing the seed.
• As the embryo develops, the seed stockpiles proteins, oils and
starch.
• Initially, these nutrients are stored in the endosperm, but later in
seed development in many species, the storage function is taken
over by the swelling storage leaves (cotyledons) of the embryo
itself.
 The endosperm is rich in nutrients, which it provides
to the developing embryo.

 In most monocots and some dicots, the endosperm

also stores nutrients that can be used by the seedling
after germination

 In many dicots, the food reserves of the endosperm

are completely exported to the cotyledons before
the seed completes its development, and
consequently the mature seed lacks endosperm.
 What happen to the ovary?

fruit
Ovary Fruit
 What happen to the ovule?
Ovule seed

Ovule
Seed
The development include of
integument change into seed
coat

(outer integument form the

testa and inner integument
form the tegment)