We explain what plant reproduction is, both sexual and asexual. Also, what are angiosperms and gymnosperms.
What is plant reproduction?
All living beings have some type of reproduction, that is, a mechanism to continue the species and guarantee the preservation of its genetic content where its biological wealth is found. In the case of living beings of the plant kingdom, said reproduction occurs through very specific ways, which can be sexual or asexual.
The reproduction of plants, therefore, largely depends on the species plant in question: the different types of plants vary enormously in terms of structures, behaviors and, therefore, reproductive methods.
The immense diversity of species in many cases allows both sexual and asexual reproduction, depending on the environmental conditions. Additionally, many plant species are hermaphrodites.
However, broadly speaking, plant reproduction can be differentiated into:
- Angiosperms They are plants with flowers and fruits.
- Gymnosperms They are plants without flowers. This group in turn can be distinguished from mosses (bryophytes) and ferns (tracheophytes), which do not have seeds and therefore reproduce asexually.
In both groups, the presence of seeds is almost always evidence of a method of sexual reproduction (even if it is with itself, given hermaphroditism).
sexual reproduction of plants
As in animals, sexual reproduction in plants requires the union of two gametes (female and male), which are produced in the sexual organs of plants: stamen and stigma, respectively.
These haploid gametes usually come together by the action of insects or pollinating media (like bees), which transport pollen full of gametes from one plant to the other, thus allowing fertilization. In other cases, the wind plays that role, especially for fungi, mosses and ferns that also have sexual reproduction through spores.
Once the plant has been fertilized with the pollen of another, inside the flower a zygote is produced that combines the genetic characteristics of its two parents (sexual variability) and that is eventually covered with a protective shell, constituting a seed.
So, in angiospermias, a fruit is created around it, so that animals eat it and transport it to other places far from the parent plant, or the seeds will be released into the environment, so that they germinate where they get the ideal conditions and the cycle can begin again.
From each seed a single plant germinates, whose genome is unique and different from the other seeds of its litter.
Asexual reproduction of plants
Regarding asexual reproduction, obviously It does not present genetic variability, so it does not require pollination or fertilization. Instead, it is carried out through different mechanisms, such as:
- Sporulation. This is the name given to the generation of spores, which can be of very different types, and which are prepared to resist the adverse conditions of the environment until there is sufficient humidity to germinate. These spores possess the entire genome of their parent and will therefore create individuals identical to it, that is, clones, which will perpetuate the colony.
- Gemmation. It is an unequal division of the cells of the individual that reproduces, generating another identical to itself from some protuberance or body structure that, once the time has come, can grow and separate from the parent to begin an independent life, or stay attached and start a colony.
- Spread In this case, reproduction is carried out through structures usually underground, which generate new individuals but physically attached to their parents. This is the case of tubers, rhizomes or bulbs.
- Apomixis It is a form of asexual reproduction through seeds, available only for some plants, in which seeds are produced without fertilization or pollination, but only by replicating the genome of the parent, that is, clonal seeds.
Continue with: Animal reproduction
References
- “Plant reproduction” in Wikipedia.
- “The asexual reproduction of plants” (video) in La Eduteca.
- “The sexual reproduction of plants” (video) in La Eduteca.
- “How do Plants reproduce?” in Science ABC.
- “Plant reproductive system” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
