The Story of the Seed

Blogpost 7     Our cabbage plant belongs to a family called Brassica oleracea and there is a variety of plants that belong in this group. We decided to take a closer look at the fertilization of these flowering plants. A few weeks ago my group an I decided to do a flower dissection where you found the parts of a flower, that are important in the process of fertilization.     Fertilization is the process of fertilizing an egg or plant, involving the fusion of male and female gametes to form a zygote. However plants go through angiosperm fertilization  since a plant is has both female and male reproductive parts. The anthers of a plant produce pollen which carries sperm. This happens through meiosis and then four haploid spore cells are formed. Then these cells go through mitosis. They then become pollen grains. This pollen grains must land on the stigma of a flower which Is the female reproductive part of a flower. The stigma has a sticky surfa...

         Anthers and Stigmas and Styles, Oh My!        Fertilization occurs in our plants and other types of Brassica Oleracea through the plants different parts. For instance, first, pollen grains are formed by meiosis and the anthers, producing haploid spores that go through mitosis. After that, meiosis in the ovule produces haploid spores as well, and after the spores going through mitosis, they become an egg. Then, pollen grains land on the stigma, which grow tubes to the ovule, with a sperm fertilizing the egg. This forms a zygote, and in each ovule, a seed is developed and during the development, the ovary wall starts to thicken and form the fruit around the seeds and eventually, the plant starts to grow. This is a picture of our tiny yellow flower under the microscope. This image shows how after everything from the flower has been taken off, besides the ovules, which look like tiny green bubbles. The ovary was sliced o...

Introduction  Brassica oleracea , the plant group in which our own cabbage plants fit into, is quite an extensive group. However, the flowers in which the grown plant originated from, is a perfect example of the reproductive system in plants. A few weeks ago, I dissected a flower to locate multiple important parts of the flower, such as the stigma, anther, and filament. Reproductive Parts  Here is an image of the petals of the flower, with the ends of the filaments sticking out. The petals are sort of 'shields' for the stigma and the filament/anther. Here are the multiple stamens of the flower. This is the male reproductive system of a flower. Shown are the anthers, or the little yellow ends to the green stalks. Anthers contain pollen, the male gamete (sperm). The filament, the long light-green tube connected to the anther, is connected to the base of the flower. Here are the images of the carpel, or also known as the pistil. This is the fem...