Section 3: Flowering Plants

In anthophytes, seeds and fruits can develop from flowers after

fertilization.
K W L
What I Know What I Want to Find Out What I Learned
Essential Questions
• How can the life cycle of a flowering plant be described?
• What is the process of fertilization and seed formation in flowering plants?
• What are the different methods of seed dispersal?
• What is seed germination?

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Vocabulary
Review New
• cytoskeleton • polar nuclei
• endosperm
• seed coat
• germination
• radicle
• hypocotyl
• dormancy

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Life Cycle
• Anthophytes, like all plants, exhibit alternation of generations.
• Sporophyte generation is dominant

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Life Cycle
Gametophyte development
• Female gametophyte development:
• A megaspore forms in the pistil, and the nucleus undergoes mitosis,
forming one cell with 8 nuclei.
• The nuclei separate: 3 on each end of the cell, and 2 polar nuclei in the
center.
• One of the nuclei closest to the micropyle becomes the egg; the egg plus
the cell with seven nuclei are the female gametophyte.

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Life Cycle
Gametophyte development
• Male gametophyte development:
• In the anther, specialized cells under go meiosis
and produce microspores.
• Each microspore nucleus undergoes mitosis that
forms two nuclei
• A protective cell wall grows around the
microspore, forming the immature male
gametophyte.

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 Plant Growth
Go to your ConnectEd resources to play Animation: Plant Growth.

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Life Cycle
Pollination and fertilization
• When a compatible pollen grain lands
on a stigma, the pollen tube forms.
• The pollen grain produces two sperm,
one of which fuses with the egg
forming the zygote, and the other of
which fuses with the two polar nuclei
forming a triploid (3n) cell.
• This process is called double
fertilization and is unique to
anthophytes.

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 Double Fertilization
Go to your ConnectEd resources to play Animation: Double
Fertilization in Flowers.

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Results of Reproduction
Seed and fruit development
• The sporophyte zygote undergoes numerous cell divisions to become an embryo.
• The 3n cell becomes the endosperm tissue, which provides nutrients to the
growing embryo.
• The endosperm is mostly absorbed into the cotyledons of eudicots, but in
monocots it accounts for a large volume of the seed.

Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education Flowering Plants

Results of Reproduction
Seed and fruit development
• As the endosperm matures, the outside layers of the ovule harden and form a
protective tissue called the seed coat.
• The ovary of a plant can contain one or many ovules.
• As the ovule develops into a seed, changes occur in the ovary that cause it to
develop into a fruit.

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 Types of Fruit
Go to your ConnectEd resources to play Interactive Table: Types of
Fruit.

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Results of Reproduction
Seed dispersal
• Fruits help disperse the seeds away from their parent plant, reducing competition
and increasing their chance of survival.
• Some seeds pass unharmed through the digestive tracts of animals before being
deposited.

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Results of Reproduction
Seed germination
• When the embryo in a seed starts to grow, the process is called germination.
• The first part of the embryo to appear outside the seed is the radicle.
• The hypocotyl is the first part of the seed to appear above ground.
• Seeds produced at the end of the growing season may enter dormancy, a state of
little to no growth, to increase survival in harsh conditions.

Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education Flowering Plants

 Seed Germination in Flowering Plants
Go to your ConnectEd resources to play Animation: Seed Germination
in Flowering Plants.

Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education Flowering Plants

Review
Essential Questions
• How can the life cycle of a flowering plant be described?
• What is the process of fertilization and seed formation in flowering plants?
• What are the different methods of seed dispersal?
• What is seed germination?

Vocabulary
• polar nuclei • germination • hypocotyl
• endosperm • radicle • dormancy
• seed coat

Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education Flowering Plants