Seeds from gametes
Seeds are formed by the fusion of gametes produced in the sexual reproductive structures of a mature plant. What happens here is the production of new plants from those seeds.
That single sentence is the plan for the rest of the chapter's plant half. Everything that follows is one step of it, in order — the structure that makes the gametes, getting one gamete to the other, the fusion itself, the seed that results, how it travels and how it starts growing.
The road ahead
- The flower — the structure built for the job.
- Pollination — pollen reaching a stigma.
- Fertilisation — the two gametes fusing.
- Fruit and seed — what the flower turns into.
- Dispersal — the seed getting away from its parent.
- Germination — the seed becoming a plant.
Unlike vegetative propagation, this route mixes the characteristics of two plants, so the seedlings are not copies of anything. That is the cost and the whole point of it.