Chapter 30 Seed Plants

Reproductive adaptations of plants

Gymnosperms

Why are seed plants more successful?

Plant diversity 2

First seed plants 350 million years ago

Sporpollenin
Lan plants 475 million years ago
Vascular plants 425 million years ago
Extant seed plants 305 million years ago

Heterospory and reduced gametophytes

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Seed plants are heterosporous

o Megaspores -> female gametophytes
o Microspores -> male gametophytes
Spores remain within sporophyte tissue
o Growing into tiny M or F gametophytes
Why is this an adaptation?
o Gametophytes dont have the moisture they need to grow without
drying out
Mosses and other non vascular -> gametophyte dominant
Ferns and other seedless vascular plants -> sporophyte dominant

Ovule
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Derived from a megasporangium on a sporophyll

The megaspore -> female gametophyte
Egg produced and fertilized here
The ovule includes
o Integument (2n)
o Megasporangium (2n)
o Megaspore (n)
o Female gametopohyte (n)

Pollen
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The microsporangium retains microspores

Microspores -> tiny male gametophytes in a protective (sporopollenin)
coating = pollen grains
Pollen grains travel through the air to reach ovule bearing plants (NEVER
SEEN BEFORE)
New step in sex = pollination ***

Pollen grain then grows a pollen tube* toward the egg within the ovule
The sperm is released within the pollen tube
o No flagella in conifers and angiosperm
***chemotaxis so the tube knows which direction to grow
Fertilization occurs within the ovule
o Note: no rain or dew or moisture needed

Seed
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Develops from fertilized ovule

o Includes seed coat, food supply (n), embryo (2n)
Seed enhances survival on land
o Efficient adaptive dispersal
o Underground germination possible
Stored food allows embryo growth without photosynthesis
o May stay dormant until conditions are OK

Gymnosperms
The naked seed plants

Which plant adaptation is absent in both ferns and mosses?

Pollen
What is the function of pollen?
Deliver sperm to the egg

Ovules borne exposed on sporophylls

o Usually arranged in cones
o No flower; no fruit
Phylum gingkophyta
o One extant sp.: biloba
o Herbal medicine
o Flagellated sperm
Phylum cycadophyta
o Form like a palm tree about 100 species
o Ex: zamia
o Ex: sago palm
o Central male or female cones
o Flagellated sperm
Phylum gentophyta
o 3 distinct genera about 70 species
o Sperm not motile
o Gnetum in tropics
o Does not have sperm; similar to conifers
o Ex: ephedra in US deserts

Phylum Coniferophyta
o Most diverse gymnosperms today
o Cone bearers
o Male pollen cone (sperm not motile)
o Female ovulate cone
o Dominate high altitudes and latitudes in N. Hemisphere
o Most are evergreen with needle like leaves
o EX: pine, fir, spruce, cedar, juniper, cypress
o Record breakers: tallest organisms, most massive organism
Life Cycle of a Pine Tree
o 3 key productive adaptations
Increasing dominance of the sporophyte
The advent of the seed as a resistant, dispersible stage
The appearance of pollen as an airborne agent
o Sporophyte -> pine tree
o Sporangia -> in the scales of the cone
o Two types of spores produced by separate cones
Small pollen cones
Microsporocytes undergo meiosis producing haploid
microspores -> microspore develops into pollen grain,
containing the male gametophyte
Large ovulate cones
Megasporocytes undergo meiosis and produce haploid
megaspores inside the ovule. Surviving megaspores
develop into multicellular female gametophytes (retained
within the sporangium)
o It takes nearly three years, for the male and female gametophytes to
be produced and brought together and for mature seeds to form from
fertilized ovules

Angiosperms
Classified into a single Phylum: Anthophyta
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Derived Characteristics
o Flower: structure specialized for sexual reproduction
Flowers contain ovaries, which surround and protect the seeds
In general, an advantage because they promote the transport of
pollen by being attractive to other animals and insects
A specialized shoot
o Fruit
After pollination, the ovary develops into a fruit, which protects
the seed and aids in its dispersal
a wall of tissue surrounding the seed
Fruit increase the ranges they (angiosperms) in habit, spreading
the seeds over hundreds of square kilometers
About the flower:
o They can vary in:

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Shape and color

Smell and nectar
Organ arrangement and time of blooming (opening)
Flowers are determinate shoots; they cease growing after the flower
and fruit are formed
4 rings of modified leaves (sporophylls) called floral organs
Floral organs include the sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels
Sepals enclose the flower before it looms, base of the petals
Petals:
Interior to the sepals
Brightly colored
Aid in attracting pollinators
*flowers that lack brightly colored petals -> wind
pollinated
Sepals and petals are sterile (do not produce sperm or eggs)
Within the flower
Two whorls of fertile floral organs that produce spores
Stamens and Carpels
Stamens
o Produce microspores -> pollen grains containing
male gametophytes
o Consists of:
A stalk, called a filament
And a terminal sac, the anther (where pollen
is produced by microsporangia)
Carpels
o Make megaspores and their products (female
gametophytes)
o Some flowers have a single carpels, others have
multiple ones
o A sticky stigma, at the tip of the carpel receives
pollen
o A style leads from the stigma to the ovary at the
base of the carpel
*if fertilized, an ovule develops into a seed
pistil sometimes used to refer to a single
carpel or two or more fused carpels
Complete flowers have all 4 basic floral organs
Some species have incomplete flowers
Lacking sepals, petals, stamens, or carpels
Ex: most grass flowers lack petals

Fruit

Consists of a mature ovary but can also include other flower

parts
As seeds develop from ovules after fertilization, the ovary wall
thickens
Fruits protect dormant seeds and aid in dispersal

Fruit

Fruits can be fleshy or dry

Dry fruits
o Include beans, nuts, and grains
o Some split open at maturity to release seeds,
whereas others remain closed
o Wind-dispersed typically
o Cereal grains of maize, rice, or wheat are actually a
fruit with a dry outer covering (the former wall of
the ovary)
Fleshy fruits
o Grapes, plums, tomatos
o The wall (pericarp) of the ovary becomes soft
during ripening
adaptations
Seeds of some flowering plants, are contained within fruits that
function as parachutes or propellers
Some, like coconuts, are adapted to disperse by water
Some seeds have fruits modified as burrs that cling to animal fur
Edible fruits, when eaten, are digested and the animal deposits
the seeds with its feces (natural fertilizer

Life cycle
Of Angiosperms
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In angiosperms, the sporophyte is the dominant generation: larger, more

conspicuous, and longer lived than the gametophyte
o The diploid plant, the sporophyte, produces haploid spores by meiosis
o These spores divide by mitosis, giving rise to multicellular
gametophytes (the male and female haploid plants that produce
gametes (sperm and egg))
o Fertilization, the fusion of gametes, results in diploid zygotes, which
divide by mitosis and form new sporophytes
o The flower of the sporophyte produces microspores that form male
gametophytes, and megaspores that form female gametophytes
Male gametophytes
Within the pollen grains, which develop within
microsporangia in the anthers
Each male gametophyte has 2 haploid cells; a generative
cell that divides into 2 sperm, and tube cell that produces
a pollen tube
Together, these 2 cells and the spore wall constitute a
pollen grain
Female gametophytes
Each ovule, which develops in the ovary, contains a
female gametophyte, known as the embryo sac

The embryo sac consists of only a few cells, one of which

is the egg
o After pollen is released from the anther, it travels till it becomes stuck
to the stigma at the tip of the carpel
o ***Although some flowers self-pollinate, MOST have mechanisms that
ensure CROSS-POLLINATION
Cross-pollination enhances genetic variability
In some flowers, the stamen (male) and carpel (female) develop
and mature at different rates; or they may be physically
arranged so self-pollination is unlikely
Ex: fused anthers
They can also be unisex
o The pollen grain (male) absorbs water and germinates after it adheres
to the stigma of a carpel
o The tube cell (male) produces a pollen tube that grow down within the
style of the carpel
o After reaching the ovary, the pollen tube penetrates the micropyle
(pore in the integuments of the ovule) and discharges two sperm cells
into the embryo sac
o One sperm fertilizes the egg -> diploid zygote
o The other fuses with the two nuclei in the large central cell of the
female gametophyte, producing a triploid cell (endosperm)
o DOUBLE FERTILIZATION, one produces a zygote, and another produces
and triploid endosperm**** unique to angiosperms
o After DF, the ovule matures into a seed
o Zygote develops -> sporophyte embryo with a rudimentary root and
one or two seed leaves called cotyledons
o The triploid central cell of the female gametophyte develops into
endosperm***, tissue rich with starch and other food reserves that
nourish the developing embryo
Double Fertilization what is its function?
Synchronizes the development of food storage in the seed with
the development of the embryo
Prevents flowers from squandering nutrients on infertile ovules
Pollination
o The transfer of pollen from the anther to the stigma
o Accomplished by wind, water, or animals
o