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All 14 Flashcards — Reproduction in flowering plants
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Question
What is a flower?
Answer
The **reproductive organ** of a flowering plant; it holds the male and female parts.
Question
What is the male part of a flower made of?
Answer
The **stamen** = an **anther** (makes pollen) on a **filament** (stalk).
Question
What is the female part of a flower made of?
Answer
The **carpel** = a **stigma** (catches pollen), a **style**, and an **ovary** containing **ovules**.
Question
What does the anther do?
Answer
It **makes and holds pollen grains**, which carry the male gametes.
Question
What does the stigma do?
Answer
It is the **sticky tip** that **catches and holds pollen** grains that land on it.
Question
Define pollination.
Answer
The **transfer of pollen from an anther to a stigma**.
Question
Define fertilization (in a plant).
Answer
The **fusion of a male gamete with the female gamete (egg)** inside the ovule, forming a zygote.
Question
Which comes first — pollination or fertilization?
Answer
**Pollination** first (pollen onto the stigma); **fertilization** second (gametes fuse in the ovule).
Question
How does the male gamete reach the ovule?
Answer
A **pollen tube grows down the style** from the pollen grain, carrying the male gamete to the ovule.
Question
What does the ovule become after fertilization?
Answer
A **seed** (containing the embryo and a food store).
Question
What does the ovary become after fertilization?
Answer
A **fruit**, which surrounds the seeds and helps disperse them.
Question
What are self-incompatibility alleles?
Answer
Alleles that make a plant's stigma **reject its own pollen**, so it cannot fertilise itself.
Question
Why do self-incompatibility alleles benefit a plant?
Answer
They **force cross-pollination**, which **increases genetic variation** in the offspring.
Question
Which plants are most likely to cross-pollinate?
Answer
Plants that **cannot fertilise themselves** — e.g. those with self-incompatibility or with male and female parts that mature at different times.
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Topic 4.7 hub
Reproduction
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