Angiosperm Reproduction

Pollination

Wind - Bees - Moths - Bats - Flies - Birds

Wind

Abiotic

Small, green, inconspicuous flowers

*No need to be colourful or scented

*Inefficient process: compensated by copious amounts of pollen

Bees

Most important insect pollinator

Delicate, sweet fragrance

Bright colours: yellow, blue

Ultraviolet markings: nectar guides

Moths

Sweetly fragrant

White or yellow: stand out at night

Cost/benefit:

Moths pollinates plants so it can make seeds

Moth lays eggs and larvae eat the seeds

Bats

Light colour flowers: stands out at night

Aromatic

Flies

Rotten meat odor

Reddish and fleshy (petals)

Cost/benefit:

*Flies pollinates plant so it can makes seeds

*Flies lay eggs, but lavae have no carrion to eat and starve

Birds

Bright red or yellow

Have little odor: birds do not have a well-developed sense of smell

Nectar: sugary solution with high energy

Long, bent floral tube to fit curved beak

Fruit

Derived from ovary of the flower and protects the seeds

Types of fruits

Simple fruit

Aggregate fruit

Multiple fruit

Accesory fruit

Simple fruit

Derived from a simple carpel or several fused carpels

*Fleshy

*Dry

Fleshy (fruit)

Berry

Hesperidium

Pepo

Drupe

Berry

Flesh without a pit.

*Grapes, tomato, cranberry

*Avocado, banana, persimmon

Hesperidium

Leathery ring (peel)

*Orange, lemon, grapefruit

Pepo

Hard ring

*Gourds: cucumber, pumpkin, watermelon

Drupe

Flesh without stony pit

*One seed inside the pit

Stone fruit: peach, plum, apricot, cherry - mango, olive, coconut

Seed: almond, cashew, walnut

Dry (fruit)

Legume

Achene

Grain

Nut

Legume

Simple ovary with row of ovules

*Peas, peanut

Achene

Thin dry ovary walls

*Dandelion, sunflower, buckwheat

Grain

Dry ovary walls attached to seed

*Cereal (types of grass): rice, corn, wheat, barley, oat

Nut

Thick dry ovary wall

*Acorn, chestnut, hazelnut

Aggregate fruit

Derived from a flower with many, separate carpels

*Each carpel = separate fruitlet

*Cluster together on a single receptacle

*Raspberry, blackberry, boysenberry

Multiple fruit

Derived from an inflorescence (a group of flowers tightly clustered together

*Each ovary fuses together into a single fruit

*Pineapple, fig, mulberry, jackfruit

Accesory fruit

Develops largely from tissue other than the ovary

Pome: develop from fleshy receptacle. Ovary becomes apple core.

Strawberry: aggregate fruit on a enlarged receptacle studded with tiny embedded fruits, each with a single seed

Dispersal

Water

Wind

Animals

Forcible discharge

Water

Buoyant fruit

Coconut

*Seed": embryo, endosperm (white “meat”, endocarp (hard shell)

*Fruit: buoyant husk

Wind

Maple: wings

Dandelions: parachutes

Tumbleweeds: rolling

Animals

Sharp barbs to stick to fur

Sweet tasting to be eaten, later passes in feces

Get hidden underground due to animal behaviour (squirrels and ants)

Forcible discharge

Explosive dehiscence: ballistic dispersal

Asexual reproduction

Fragmentation

Apomixis

Selfing

Fragmentation

Potato eye (axillary bud) can be cut to grow a new plant.

Aspen trees send out stolons (lateral roots)

*Cutting

*Grafting

Cutting

Cutting piece of a plant to grow a new plant

Grafting

Attaching cutting to another plant

*Stock: plants that provides the roots

*Scion: cutting being grafted

*Can be different plants

Apomixis

“without mixing”

There is no pollonation or fertilization

Ovule develops embryo spontaneously

Selfing

Same plant fertilizes its own flowers

Not exactly cloning

Mechanisms that prevent selfing

Dioecious species

Heterostyly

Self-incompatibility

Dioecious species

Separate male or female plants

Heterostyly

Style and stamens are different lengths

Self-incompatibility

Ability to reject its own pollen or a closely related individual