Put Your Botanical Knowledge to the Test

Plant Reproduction: A Summary

• Plant reproduction can occur through sexual or asexual reproduction.

• Sexual reproduction involves the fusion of gametes, resulting in offspring that are genetically different from either parent.

• Asexual reproduction produces clonal plants that are genetically identical to the parent plant and each other.

• Asexual reproduction may occur through budding, fragmentation, spore formation, regeneration, and vegetative propagation.

• Vegetative reproduction involves a vegetative piece of the original plant producing new individuals by budding, tillering, etc.

• Apomixis is a replacement of sexual reproduction and involves seeds in some cases.

• Natural vegetative reproduction mostly occurs in perennial plants and allows them to survive from one season to the next.

• Seeds generated by apomixis are a means of asexual reproduction.

• Rhizomes, runners or stolons, adventitious buds, bulbs, and gemmae are structures that allow for vegetative reproduction.

• Asexual methods are most often used to propagate cultivars with individual desirable characteristics that do not come true from seed.

• Sexual reproduction involves meiosis and fertilization, and different types of plants and algae undergo alternation of generations.

• Plants that use insects or other animals to move pollen from one flower to the next have developed greatly modified flower parts to attract pollinators.Plant Reproduction

• Different types of plant reproduction include sexual and vegetative reproduction

• Sexual reproduction in plants involves the fusion of gametes to form a zygote, which develops into a new plant

• Plants have different sexual morphologies including monoecious, dioecious, hermaphrodite, and unisexual

• The sporophyte generation is dominant in most plants, while the gametophyte generation is dominant in bryophytes

• Ferns reproduce through spores which germinate into gametophytes, producing motile sperm and egg cells which fuse to form a sporophyte

• Bryophytes reproduce through spores which develop into gametophytes, producing gametes that fuse to form a sporophyte

• Plants have various mechanisms to disperse their offspring, including seeds, spores, and gemmae

• Plant offspring care is observed in some species, such as the Mammillaria hernandezii cactus, which delays the release of some seeds to protect them from threats and increase their chances of germination

• Plants and mammals have similar reproductive strategies, but in harsh environmental conditions, mammals produce fewer and larger offspring, while plants produce more seeds

• Sexual morphology in plants can vary greatly, including homogamous and heterogamous head forms

• Plant reproduction is essential for the survival and continuation of plant species.