Reproduction in flowering plants Cambridge IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences (Double Award) revision
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In plain words
A flower is a plant's way of making seeds. Pollen from the male part has to reach the female part, usually of another flower. Some plants pay insects in nectar to carry it; others just throw huge amounts into the wind.
Three things to know
- Male parts: the stamen, made of an anther (makes pollen) on a filament. Female parts: the carpel, made of a stigma (catches pollen), a style and an ovary containing ovules.
- Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther to a stigma. Insect-pollinated flowers have bright petals, scent, nectar and sticky pollen. Wind-pollinated flowers have small dull petals, anthers and feathery stigmas hanging outside, and lots of light pollen.
- After pollination a pollen tube grows down the style to an ovule, and the pollen nucleus fuses with the ovule nucleus: fertilisation. The ovule becomes a seed. Seeds need water, oxygen and a suitable temperature to germinate.
Tips and tricks
- Pollination is pollen arriving on the stigma. Fertilisation is the nuclei fusing. They are not the same thing.
- Seeds need WOW to germinate: Water, Oxygen, Warmth. They don't need light.
It lands in your notebook with its questions as flashcards.
Reproduction in flowering plants: 5 questions and answers
These are the quiz’s questions. Do the quiz first, then come back here for the ones that got you.
Which part of a flower makes pollen?
The anther sits on top of the filament.
What is pollination?
It comes before fertilisation.
Which is a feature of wind-pollinated flowers?
They catch pollen drifting in the air.
What grows from a pollen grain down the style?
It carries the male nucleus to the ovule.
Which is not needed for germination?
Most seeds germinate underground, in the dark.
Quiz
5 questions
Tap an answer and you’ll see straight away whether it’s right, and why.
Worksheet
3 questions, 8 marks. Write your answers on paper, then check them.
Reproduction in flowering plants
Cambridge IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences (Double Award) 0654 · 8 marks · papermunch.org
Name ______________________________ Date ______________
State what is meant by pollination.[2]
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The transfer of pollen grains from an anther to a stigma.
Give three ways in which a wind-pollinated flower differs from an insect-pollinated flower.[3]
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Any three: small, dull petals (not large and bright); no scent or nectar; anthers hang outside the flower; large, feathery stigmas outside the flower; large amounts of small, light, smooth pollen.
State the three conditions needed for seeds to germinate.[3]
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Water, oxygen and a suitable temperature.
Answers: Reproduction in flowering plants
- 1. The transfer of pollen grains from an anther to a stigma.
- 2. Any three: small, dull petals (not large and bright); no scent or nectar; anthers hang outside the flower; large, feathery stigmas outside the flower; large amounts of small, light, smooth pollen.
- 3. Water, oxygen and a suitable temperature.