PLANT REPRODUCTION

Scientists divide plants into two main groups depending on whether they
reproduce by seeds or spores.

Plants that reproduce by seeds

Seed plants have special structures on
them where male and female cells join together
through a process called fertilisation. After
fertilisation, a tiny plant called an embryo is
formed inside a seed. The seed protects the
embryo and stores food for it. The parent plant
Figure 1: Bean seed embryo. After disperses or releases the seed. If the seed lands
fertilisation, a tiny plant called an
embryo is formed inside a seed. The
where the conditions are right, the embryo
seed protects the embryo and stores germinates and grows into a new plant.
food for it. Scientists divide seed plants into two main groups:
plants with flowers and plants with cones. They also have special names for
these groups. Plants that have flowers are called angiosperms. Plants that hold
their seeds in cones are called gymnosperms.

Angiosperms – seed plants with flowers

Angiosperms have flowers. The flowers are special structures for
reproduction. They contain male parts that make pollen and female parts that
contain ovules. Some plants have these male and female parts in different
flowers. Pollen is carried from a male part to a female part by wind, insects or
other animals (a process called pollination), where it releases
male gametes that fertilise the female gametes in the ovules. The ovules
develop into seeds from which new plants will grow. In most angiosperms, part
of the flower develops into fruit, which protects the seeds inside them. Fruit can
be soft like oranges or hard like nuts.
Flowering plants form the biggest group of seed plants, with about
300,000 species around the world – that’s 90% of the whole plant kingdom. New
Zealand has about 2,000 native angiosperms, and an amazing
25,000 introduced species found mainly in gardens, farms and orchards.
Flowering plants are all around us, even if sometimes we don’t recognise them
as having flowers. We all know the showy flowers of native kōwhai, flax and
pōhutakawa and all those lovely coloured flowers in our gardens, but the tall
toetoe and the grasses in our lawns are also flowering plants.

Gymnosperms – seed plants with cones

Gymnosperms are seed plants but their seeds are held in cones. Next time
you pick up a pine cone, look for loose seeds inside. Male cones make pollen,
which is carried to female cones by the wind. After the female gametes are
 fertilised by male gametes from the pollen, the
female cones produce seeds, which are then
scattered away from the plant by wind or
animals.
Most gymnosperms are trees. There are
about 20 native gymnosperms in New Zealand,
including our tallest tree, the kahikatea
(Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, white pine). Others
include mataī (Prumnopitys taxifolia, black pine),
tōtara (Podocarpus totara), rimu (Dacrydium
Figure 2: Male and female kauri cupressinum, red pine) and kauri (Agathis
cones. A kauri tree has both male
and female cones. The male cone australis). The main tree that makes up New
(top) produces pollen and the Zealand’s plantation forests is the
female (bottom) produces seeds. exotic gymnosperm Pinus radiata.
Kauri is a gymnosperm.
Gymnosperms make their seeds
inside of cones. Plants that reproduce by spores
Ferns, mosses, liverworts and
green algae are all plants that have spores. Spore plants have a different life
cycle. A parent plant sends out tiny spores containing special sets
of chromosomes. These spores do not contain an embryo or food stores.
Fertilization of the spores takes place away from the parent, usually in a damp
place. An embryo is formed and a new plant grows from it. (For more
information, view the Fern life cycle interactive.) New Zealand has about 200
species of ferns and over 500 species of moss.

Nature of science
Classification helps us put order into the world around us. Scientists start with very
big categories like plants and animals and continue to divide the groups based
on shared characteristics – like methods of reproduction.