The Life Cycle Of Flowering Plants Part II

Greetings all and Sundry! You are again welcome to my blog. It's another blissful day for us to share our studies on Science. We'll continue with the life cycle of flowering plants as we shared Yesterday since it's very broad topic.

Fruit formation

Fruits are said to be the fleshy or dry ripened ovary of a flowering plant, enclosing the seed or seeds. Apricots, bananas, and grapes, as well as bean pods, corn grains, tomatoes, cucumbers, and (in their shells) acorns and almonds, are all examples of fruits. Botanically fruits are matured ovaries which have seeds within developed from ovules. Some fruits produced many seeds while others produce only one seed. Those fruits that produce many seeds are called berry fruits and examples are tomatoes, guava, orange, beans, and okro. On the other hand, fruits that normally contain only one seed is called Drupe fruits. Examples are pear and mango.

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Types Of Fruits

We have Fleshy Fruits and Dry fruits. Fleshy fruits have high water content in the pericarp, and a fleshy mesocarp once they are mature. This means that fleshy fruits are juicier than dry fruits. The group of fleshy fruits includes many of the fruits that you may find in the grocery store, and many sweet fruits, such as peaches, tomatoes and apples. Dry fruits are hard and dry when they are fully mature The pericarp of dry fruits still has three layers—exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp—but compared with fleshy fruits, they are thinner and do not have as much water. Sometimes the pericarp is in direct contact with the seed, making it hard to tell the fruit apart from the seed. Most dry fruits do not depend on animals to spread their seeds. Instead, they use other mechanisms, such as dehiscence to free the seeds, or using water or the wind to blow their seeds away (think of dandelions: the slightest wind will send the fruits, equipped with parachute-like hairs, flying away).

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Seed Formation

Seeds are developed from ovules and are enclosed in the ovary of fruits. They normally has one scar unlike fruits which have more than one scars. It stores food nutrients and have the potential to grow into a young plant under normal conditions.A seed consists of a miniature undeveloped plant (the embryo), which, alone or in the company of stored food for its early development after germination, is surrounded by a protective coat (the testa). Frequently small in size and making negligible demands upon their environment, seeds are eminently suited to perform a wide variety of functions the relationships of which are not always obvious: multiplication, perennation (surviving seasons of stress such as winter), dormancy (a state of arrested development), and dispersal. Pollination and the “seed habit” are considered the most important factors responsible for the overwhelming evolutionary success of the flowering plants,

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Pollination

Pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from the anther of a male flower to the stigma of the female flower. The aim for every living organism is to reproduce and fill the space of the environment. So, one of the ways through which flowering plants can multiple is through pollination. There are basically 2 types of pollination, these are self pollination and cross pollination. Basically, there are two types of pollination. These are: Self pollination and cross pollination.

Self Pollination
In self pollination, the pollen is transported from the anthers to the pistil (stigma) of the same flower (typical self pollination) or to another flower of the same individual (adjacent self pollination).

Cross Pollination?
In the case of cross pollination, the pollen from the anthers of a certain plant is transported to the pistil (stigma) of another plant. It occurs in the most of the flowering plants. The cross pollination provides greater genetic diversity and hence more vital offspring, compared to the self pollination.

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The difference between self pollination and cross pollination

1• Self pollination is the process of transport of pollen from the anthers to the stigma of the same flower (typical self-pollination) or to the pistil (stigma) of another flower of the same individual (adjacent self pollination) while Cross Pollination, the pollen from the anthers of a certain plant is transported to the pistil (stigma) of another plant.

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2• Self pollination occurs about 1/4 of the flowering plants while Cross pollination occurs in about 3/4 of the flowering plant species.

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3• Self pollination can occur without pollinating agent, but Cross pollination needs pollinating agent – wind, insects, etc. The flowers pollinated by insects attract pollinators by color, production of nectar, odor, etc. The flowers pollinated by wind produce large quantities of small pollen grains.

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4• Self pollination increases genetic uniformity and decreases genetic variations, while Cross pollination increases genetic variation and decreases genetic uniformity.

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5• Self Pollination Self pollination reduces the gene pool. However,Cross pollination maintains the gene pool.

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6• Self pollinating plant species produce limited amount of pollen, but Cross pollinating plant species produce large amount of pollen.

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The Agents Of Pollination

The main agents of pollination are: Air, water, Insects and other Animals which may aid pollination to take place. However, the largely pollinators are wind and insects so we sometimes focus on the the two main likelihood of pollination that's wind and insects. Flowers that are pollinated by wind are called wind pollinated flowers, while those that are pollinated by insects are called insects pollinated flowers.

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The main difference between wind and insect pollinated flowers

The main difference are simple. For wind pollinated flowers sometimes produce pollens that are lighter and smaller to be carried by wind, but for insect pollinated flowers sometimes produce pollen grains that are heavier and sticky which help insects to easily carry them away. In most cases, the wind pollinated flowers have dull petals, while insect pollinated flowers have brightly coloured petals that attract insects for pollination. The wind pollinated flowers mostly don't have sweet scent, but insect pollinated flowers have sweet nectars to attract insects for pollination.

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