Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Parts of A Flower and Their Functions
Parts of A Flower and Their Functions
Seed plants vary greatly in the time that they take to cycle through their
developmental stages. For example, some plants may take just a few weeks to reach
maturity while others take years before they are able to produce seeds. Likewise, some
flowers last just a few hours while others can last for weeks.
However, not all seed plants are flowering plants. Seed plants that do not have
flowerssuch as cycads, ginkgo, and conifersare called gymnosperms. Conifers are
common gymnosperms; instead of flowers, conifers have cones that produce pollen or
eggs. Male cones are smaller and soft, and female cones are large and hard. Wind
carries pollen from the male cone to the female cone. As the eggs are pollinated and
seeds develop, the scales of the cone open up to release the seeds.
Furthermore, not all plants are seed plants. Some plants, such as ferns and
mosses, reproduce with spores instead of seeds. Spores, like seeds, can survive harsh
conditions and develop into new plants; however, unlike seeds, spores are produced
without fertilization and contain neither a plant embryo nor endosperm. Some plants can
reproduce without spores or seeds through vegetative reproduction, in which a part of
the stem or root gives rise to a new plant.