How to make a lot of flowers

Flower Reproduction

Some Basics

• Like animals, some plants reproduce sexually and others asexually

• Plants generally have two stages of life– Sporophyte: spores are made (spores are

fertilized eggs, or plant babies)– Gametophyte: sex cells, both male and female,

are made

There are 3 types of plants

• Non-vascular– No specialized tissue for

moving H20, nutrients

• Vascular, Seedless– Special tissue, but no seeds

(ex: Ferns)

• Vascular, Seed– Gymnosperms (no flowers)

– Angiosperms (flowers)

Non-Vasculars

• Mosses often live grouped together

• These are usually the first plants to grow in a new environment

• When they die, a layer of thin new soil forms– Then, new plants can

grow into the soil

Vascular, Seedless

• Ferns usually grow in right after the mosses have formed their layer of soil

• Like mosses, when they die, they also leave soil

• Vascular, seedless plant remains form coal

Seed Plants• Seed plants include gymnosperms and

angiosperms• Seeds surround and protect spores from the

sporophyte stage– Gametophytes grow within these, as opposed to

seedless plants where gametophytes grow on their own outside

• While the sperm of seedless plants need water to move through to reach an egg, seed plants do not– Sperm inside pollen is transported by wind or

animals

Vascular and Seed: Gymnosperms

• Do NOT have flowers• Seeds, containing male

sex cells, protected by cones

• There are male and female cones

• Fertilization is called pollination

Vascular and Seed: Angiosperms• Have flowers that help

them reproduce• Wind and animals

(like birds and bees) carry pollen from flower to flower– Cross-pollination

• Fruits, or burrs, can grow around seeds– When animals eat the

fruit, or carry the burrs they leave the fertilized seeds somewhere else

Can you explain how these reproduce?