Pollination and fertilisation are used by plants to reproduce sexually. They are the two most prevalent and natural methods of procreation. This procedure, which happens in all bisexual flowers, involves both the male and female reproductive components (anther and stigma). As a result, the reproductive organs of all flowering plants are referred to as flowers.
Pollination
is an important part of the life cycle of flowering plants. It’s a part of the sexual reproduction process of flowering plants, which results in seeds that grow into new plants. Flowers are the structures of blooming plants that include all of the specialised elements needed for sexual reproduction.
Plants produce gametes, which contain half as many chromosomes as the remainder of the plant. Male gametes can be found in small pollen grains found on flower anthers. Male and female gametes are brought together by the pollination process. Pollen cannot reach the ovules from the anthers on its own, therefore pollination requires the assistance of other elements. Pollen from the male anthers is transferred to the female stigma by the wind or animals, mainly insects and birds. To tempt pollinators, flowers come in a variety of shapes, colours, and smells, as well as sweet nectar and nourishing pollen. Wind-pollinated flowers have a form that allows pollen to be easily picked up and deposited by the wind.
Many flowers are pollinated by their pollen during the process of self-pollination. This, however, does not always result in the genetic diversity that organisms require to survive.
Cross-pollination is a technique used by many plants to ensure that they are exclusively pollinated by pollen from another plant’s flower. Male and female components are found in separate blooms on the same plant in some cases, whereas male and female flowers are found on separate plants in others. To avoid self-pollination, several stigmas and anthers ripen at various times.
Fertilisation
A set of processes occurs once pollen lands on the stigma of a suitable flower of the same species, culminating in the development of seeds. From a pollen grain on the stigma down the style to the ovary, a tiny tube runs which is called the pollen tube. In a process known as fertilisation, the two gametes unite and their chromosomes mix, resulting in a fertilised cell with a full complement of chromosomes, including some from each parent flower. The fertilised ovule matures into a seed, which contains both a food store and an embryo that will later develop into a new plant. The ovary becomes a fruit to protect the seed. Avocados have only one ovule in their ovary, resulting in a single seed in their fruit. Whereas, many flowers, like kiwifruit, have a lot of ovules in their ovary, which results in a lot of seeds in the fruit.
Difference between pollination and fertilisation
CONCLUSION
Pollen grains are carried between the anther and the stigma by a variety of vectors like wind, birds, honeybees, moths, and butterflies during pollination. It can be divided into two types, each of which is dependent on the dispersal of pollen grains. Pollination occurs in two ways: self-pollination and cross-pollination. It was found in the 18th century by a German scientist named Christian Sprengel.
Female and male gametes join together to produce a diploid zygote during fertilisation. The entire process of fertilisation takes place within the zygote for it to develop into a seed, and flowers, as the reproductive structures of angiosperms, play a key role. Male gametes are delivered to female reproductive organs by pollinators such as birds, honey bees, butterflies, flower beetles, and other insects during fertilisation to produce a final result – an embryo in a seed.