What Plant Part Do Seeds or Fruits Develop From?
Plants have a variety of ways in which they reproduce. There are plants that reproduce by seeds and some that do not. If a plant reproduces using seeds, then there are specialized structures in the adult plant that produce and house the seeds. Does this Spark an idea?
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Structure
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An orange blossom that will eventually yield an orange. The ovule of the plant is a structure that contains the female gametophyte (or sex cells). The female sex cells become a plant embryo when fertilized by the male sperm. Once this process is complete, the ovule becomes a seed.
Types
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Cones contain the seeds of conifers. There are two types of seed-producing plants: the flowering plants and the conifers. Flowering plants produce fruit that contain the seeds, and conifers house the seeds in cones.
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Fruit
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In flowering plants, the seeds and ovules are enclosed in an ovary. The ovary is the base of a modified leaf called the carpel. The ovary wall becomes the fruit covering the seeds.
Conifers
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The ovules of conifers are not enclosed in an ovary and are exposed on the surface of the spore-producing structures. These in turn are found in the cones of the plant.
Fun Facts
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Seeds can grow in a variety of shapes and sizes. The largest seed is that of the double coconut, which can grow to 1.6 feet in diameter.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of D. Sharon Pruitt Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of B Balaji Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Sara Atkins
