Reproduction in Plants

Plants reproduce without seeds using vegetative parts. Types: Stem cutting (rose, sugarcane), Layering (jasmine — bend stem to soil, roots form, then cut), Budding (grafting one plant onto another), Rhizomes (ginger, turmeric underground stem), Tubers (potato — eyes are buds), Bulbs (onion, garlic). Advantages: faster, identical to parent, no need for seeds.

Involves pollen (male) and ovule/egg (female). Flower parts: stamen (male — anther + filament), pistil (female — stigma + style + ovary). Pollination: transfer of pollen from anther to stigma. Self-pollination: same flower. Cross-pollination: different flowers — by wind, insects (bees, butterflies), water, birds.

After pollination, pollen grain germinates, grows pollen tube down style to ovary. Male nucleus fuses with egg (fertilisation). Fertilised egg = zygote → embryo → seed. Ovary → fruit. The fruit protects the seed. True fruit: from ovary. False fruit: from other flower parts (apple — thalamus, not ovary).

Seeds need to travel away from parent plant (to avoid competition, reach new areas). Methods: Wind (dandelion, maple — lightweight, wings/parachutes), Water (coconut — floats), Animal — inside (berries eaten, seeds excreted) or outside (hooks/spines stick to fur — bur, Xanthium), Explosion (touch-me-not/Mimosa, castor — seed pod bursts).