Section 1: Introduction to Plant Reproduction

Like all plants, the life cycles of mosses, ferns, and conifers include
alternation of generations.
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What I Know What I Want to Find Out What I Learned
Essential Questions
• What are advantages of vegetative reproduction?
• What are the stages of alternation of generations?
• What are the similarities among the reproduction of mosses, ferns, and conifers?

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Vocabulary
Review New
• flagellated • vegetative reproduction
• chemotaxis
• protonema
• prothallus
• heterosporous
• megaspore
• microspore
• micropyle

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Vegetative Reproduction
• Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction where the new plant
grows from parts of the old plant.
• Results in a clone of the original plant
• Advantages to vegetative reproduction:
• Faster
• Produces uniform offspring
• An agricultural technique to produce fruit without seeds

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Vegetative Reproduction
Naturally occurring vegetative reproduction
• Fragments of plants such as mosses can be scattered by the wind, and resume
growth in a new location.
• Some plants produce horizontal roots that can grow new plants, even after the root is
cut.

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Vegetative Reproduction
Directed vegetative reproduction
• Farmers, horticulturists, and scientists can use buds, leaves, stems, or root pieces
from certain plants to grow new plants.
• Plant tissue can be placed on nutrient agar in sterile conditions to produce hundreds
of identical plants.

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Alternation of Generations
• The life cycle of most plants includes a diploid (2n) sporophyte stage and a haploid
(n) gametophyte stage.

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Alternation of Generations
• The gametophyte stage produces gametes – egg and sperm.
• In nonvascular plants, the sperm must have a small amount of water to get to the
egg.

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Alternation of Generations
• Fertilization of the egg forms the first cell of the sporophyte stage.
• As plants evolved, the sporophyte generation became larger and independent of the
gametophyte stage.

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Alternation of Generations
Go to your ConnectEd resources to play Animation: Alternation of
Generations.

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Moss Reproduction and Life Cycle
• Mosses exhibit a reproduction and life cycle characteristic of most nonvascular
plants.
• Gametophyte stage is dominant

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Moss Reproduction and Life Cycle
• There are both male and female forms of gametophyte.
• Eggs are produced in the female structure, called the archegonium.
• Sperm are produced in the male structure, called the antheridium.

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Moss Reproduction and Life Cycle
• Flagellated sperm require water to reach the archegonium.
• Sperm move towards the archegonium in response to chemicals released by the
female gametophyte.
• This response is called chemotaxis.
• Fertilization of an egg results in a zygote, the first stage of a sporophyte.

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Moss Reproduction and Life Cycle
• A mature sporophyte consists of a stalk with a capsule at its tip.
• Spores are released from the capsule when conditions are favorable.
• If a spore forms in a suitable place, it forms a protonema, a small structure that can
develop into a gametophyte and restart the cycle.

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Moss Life Cycle
Go to your ConnectEd resources to play Animation: Moss’s Life Cycle.

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Fern Reproduction and Life Cycle
• The familiar frond structure is part of a fern’s
sporophyte stage.
• The fronds contain spore-producing structures called
sori.
• If a spore lands on suitable soil, it produces a tiny
heart shaped gametophyte called a prothallus.

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Fern Reproduction and Life Cycle
• Prothalli develop both archegonia and antheridia.
• Fertilization results in a zygote, which starts the
sporophyte generation.
• Initially, the sporophyte grows on the prothallus and
receives support and nutrition
• Later, the prothallus disintegrates and the
sporophyte grows a rhizome that produces roots.

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Conifer Reproduction and Life Cycle
• Conifers are heterosporous – they produce two types of spores that develop into
male and female groups.

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Conifer Reproduction and Life Cycle
Female cones
• At the base of each scale on a female cone are two
ovules.
• Each ovule has a megasporangium that produces
megaspores.
• One of the megaspores develops into the female
gametophyte.

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Conifer Reproduction and Life Cycle
Male cones
• Each scale on the male cone contains hundreds of
sporangia.
• The sporangia produce microspores, which produce the
male gametophyte, or pollen grain.

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Conifer Reproduction and Life Cycle
Pollination
• Pollination occurs when the pollen grain from one
species of a plant lands on the female reproductive
structure of a plant of the same species.
• The pollen grain is trapped in a sticky substance called
the pollen drop which is located near the micropyle –
the opening of the ovule.

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Conifer Reproduction and Life Cycle
Seed development
• After pollination, the pollen grain grows a pollen tube
into the ovule.
• After fertilization, the zygote is dependent on the
female gametophyte while it undergoes cell division
and becomes an embryo
• As the embryo develops, the outside layer forms a seed
coat
• Seed development can take as long as three years.

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Conifer Life Cycle
Go to your ConnectEd resources to play Animation: Conifer’s Life
Cycle.

Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education Introduction to Plant Reproduction

Review
Essential Questions
• What are advantages of vegetative reproduction?
• What are the stages of alternation of generations?
• What are the similarities among the reproduction of mosses, ferns, and conifers?

Vocabulary

• vegetative reproduction • prothallus • microspore

• chemotaxis • heterosporous • micropyle
• protonema • megaspore

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