Blog Post #7 Kylee Bourbon

The fertilization in our plants occur after pollination, when pollen grains land on the sigma of a flower from the same species. One of these pollen grains develops a tiny tube that goes down the style of the ovary. This tube has a male gamete that meets the female gamete in the ovule. The fertilization of the plants occur when the male and female gametes meet and their chromosomes come together. This results in normal sets of chromosomes, with some from either parent. The newly fertilized seed will later grow into a plant. This is how plants like brassica oleracea are fertilized in order to continue to reproduce.

This is a picture of the plant we dissected. We chose a plant that had already bloomed and was big enough for us to look at.

Here, you can see the stamen surrounding the carpel. This is easily seen when the petals of the flower are removed .  The  long tube is called a filament and the end is the anther. The anther is what produces pollen, which is the male gamete.

This is the carpel. The long tube is called the  style and the end part is called the stigma. The stigma has a sticky end and is used to attract pollen.

This is the ovary of the plant sliced in half. Inside, there are very tiny unfertilized ovules.  As you can see, no carpels or stamen can be seen.



BONUS:

This is the pollen from one of the flowers under a compound-light microscope.  We chose a flower that had already fully bloomed in order to get as much pollen as possible. https://docs.google.com/document/d/10QbFcPET2PNk-5vorWPzmy5fGf8T1wcS-PLFzRhEpcQ/edit