Earlier we discussed that plants can reproduce both sexually and asexually.
In this section we'll explore how plants reproduce sexually.
Unlike in human beings, a flowering plant contains the male and female reproductive organs within the same plant.
Below, you can see the structure of a flower.
The stamens and the pistil are the reproductive parts of the flower .
The stamen is the male reproductive plant and produces small pollen grains.
Pollen grains contain the male gamete of the flower.
The pistil, which is present in the center of a flower is the female reproductive part.
The pistil is made up of three parts.
The swollen part at the bottom is the ovary.
The ovary contains ovules and each ovule has an egg cell.
The male gamete in the pollen grain fuses with the female gamete in the ovule.
The middle elongated part of the pistil is called the style and the top part is called the stigma.
The stigma can be a bit sticky. The stickiness helps in attracting and keeping pollen grains on the surface of the stigma.
Pollination is the process by which the pollen of one flower moves to the stigma of another flower.
Once the pollen reaches the stigma, a tube develops through the pollen grain, which travels through the style and reaches the ovary.
In the ovary, the male and female gamete undergo fertilisation.
After fertilisation, a zygote is formed.
The zygote divides repeatedly to form an embryo within the ovule.
The ovule then develops a tough outer coating and is gradually converted into a seeds.
The ovary continue to grow and develops into a fruit.
The seeds enclosed within this fruit can then develop into a whole now plant under the right conditions.
If the transfer of pollen occurs within the same plant, then it is known as self-pollination. If the pollen is transferred from another flower then it is referred to as cross-pollination.